(written by Islander)
Two steadfast standard-bearers of vampyric black metal mysticism and nocturnal transcendence have joined forces on a new album-length split that will be released on May 5th by the Lithuanian label Inferna Profundus Records. These two are Wampyric Rites from Ecuador and Noirsuaire from France, and the authentic name of their split is Consecration Of Nocturnal Entities.
Each band has forged three songs for the album, for a total of 34 minutes of galvanizing, glorious, and grievous music, and it truly is a union of kindred spirits. On this Bandcamp Friday we’re giving everyone a chance to listen to all of it.
Wampyric Rites open their side of the split with “The Rotten Memories of the Night“, a furious barrage of thunderous drums and raw riffing that maniacally writhes and dismally wails, but they pair that with crystalline tones that gloriously soar and shimmer. As we’ve come to expect from them, the vocals bring the vampirism through ruthlessly fanged and near-strangled screams that are vicious enough to leave eardrums shredded.
Those clear-toned, apparitional melodies that brilliantly waft through the sonic stratosphere create striking contrasts with the hurtling propulsiveness and caustic abrasiveness of everything else – two different manifestations of un-earthliness.
Other contrasts arise through guitar-leads that seem to channel despair with near-classical elegance, as well as dramatic shifts in pacing and rhythm, towering musical manifestations of calamity, frantically glittering fretwork-arpeggios, and vibrantly glimmering keys.
That’s a pretty stunning way to open their side, and they continue with an even more nocturnally haunting song in the well-named “Behind the Veil of Impenetrable Darkness“. It too creates unearthly visions, but initially moves at a slowly staggering pace, and the opening guitar melody is wretchedly forlorn.
The song does dramatically accelerate, and the music becomes frighteningly sinister, viciously violent, and symphonically swells. Once again, Wampyric Rites layer tonalities that abrasively maul, brightly flicker, and fluidly flow in expressions of fervent yearning.
“Insatiable and Forbidden Desires Beneath the Fullmoon” concludes their side of the split. They continuing to weave a rich sonic tapestry, equal parts furiously ravaging and elegantly wondrous, equal parts tormented and triumphant. They also inject a few growls, some head-butting grooves, and vocals that cry out — and the sky-high melodies exotically swirl, dazzle, and create crests of symphonic grandeur.
Noirsuaire begins with “The Thousand Dreadful Mirrors“, and fairly quickly drenches the listener in slashing and swirling chords around bounding beats and scalding screams. Those big rocking drum-and-bass rhythms are compulsive and feral, while the music is panoramic in scope and melancholy in mood.
And so, Noirsuaire creates its own musical contrasts — and adds to them with blast-beat eruptions, flows of despairing melody, and frantically flickering and crackling guitar-leads.
“Heralding Nocturnal Oppression” might be even more stricken in its mood, but it too relies mostly on vividly rocking beats (often with a punk influence), broad swaths of distressing and dismal melody, vividly throbbing riffs, and scorching vocal torment.
When the rhythm section vanishes, the guitars elevate in striking fashion, but the mood is even more distressing — it seems to yearn and plead, to express emotional agony out on the bleeding edge of endurance. And as the riffing cycles over and over again, it digs in deep, making the song even harder to forget.
Noirsuaire concludes with “Black Flame of Unholy Tradition” — and it really does blaze (and blast) from the first moment, wasting no time reaching a fever pitch of intensity. It’s a breathtaking experience of catastrophic proportions, but also elaborate in its construction and anguished in its moods. Be forewarned: this one will get stuck in heads too.
Inferna Profundus will release Consecration Of Nocturnal Entities on CD and digital formats, and an LP version will be released by the Belgian label Rabauw Productions.
PRE-ORDER:
https://www.ipr666shop.com/
https://infernaprofundusrecords.bandcamp.com/album/consecration-of-nocturnal-entities
RABAUW:
https://rabauw.bandcamp.com
https://rabauw.com
WAMPYRIC RITES:
https://linktr.ee/wampyric_rites
https://wampyricrites1.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wampyric_rites/
NOIRSUAIRE:
https://www.facebook.com/noirsuaire
http://www.instagram.com/Noirsuaire
https://noirsuaire.bandcamp.com/