(written by Islander)

With phenomenal cover art by Eliran Kantor paving the way, on May 2nd Vendetta Records will release a split entitled MANDATUM by two striking black metal bands — Excommunicatio (Germany) and Beenkerver (Netherlands). The split includes three new songs by each band, and today we’re premiering a lyric video for one of the three by Excommunicatio.

For Excommunicatio the split follows up their 2023 debut album Kodex Luzifer, which we reviewed here. The review included these thoughts:

To be sure, the album is relentlessly hellish, just as the vocals are relentlessly spine-tingling in their demonic intensity, but the album takes us on a tour — because this vision of hell is not all one place. As rendered in these songs, it is ruled by magisterial haughtiness and cold cruelty, but the lords also exult in their un-ruled excesses and their displays of burning glory, and they war on heaven too. In this infernal pageant we also tour ghettos of suffering and the wandering of lost souls in desolation.

What new hells do the Excommunicatio duo open for us on the split? We envision one of them through “Konfination – Disciples of the Light.” Continue reading »