(a short one)
Almost exactly one year ago, the Chilean horde Aarkanne did show its erected middle-finger to the dear humanoid inhabitants of our oh so sweet Mater Terra via their demon, sorry, demo, De Profundis. Now they do come up with Mysterii, their debut full-length, released via our brothers from Inferna Profundus Records. It’s a vinyl and digital release, in case you care, formerly released as well on compact disc by Ars Negative and on tape via Soul Reaper. And in case of interest, it was mixed and mastered by Vomit / Hypnosinosis member Victor ‘Wraith’ Limari.
Anyway, the six compositions have a total running time of half an hour and something, being entitled Mysterii I up till, indeed, Mysterii VI. It’s an assault in a pure Old School tradition, you know, the Second Wave trend (and hey, with a First Wave f*ck-off attitude as well!). What this entity brings is an uncompromising, somewhat distorted form of apocalyptic and chaotic blackened superiority, sucking all light, air and life out of their environment. It is an expression of deadly strength and intolerant ugliness (that’s what makes it so beautiful, haha) through melodic yet harsh compositions. The main ingredients are the deeply morbid voices and the well-composed strings in the first place. when talking about the first, those vocals, well, the main screams are of a mostly grim, hateful and gloomy kind. This throat spits venom, sulphur and poison gas, spreading a message of hatred, vengeance, disgust, disrespect and misanthropy in all its forms. Besides, there are a couple of grunt-like outbursts and weirdly spoken words, enriching the blaspheme character. The latter ingredient I just mentioned, the string-work, well, this material is strongly guitar-oriented. Duelling and tremolo leads sort of (de)colour these six hymns, creating passages of asphyxiation, mesmerism, intoxication and / or bewilderment. It are these string-patterns especially that glorify the Nordic-styled magnificence of the Old School.
But when referring to the lead string session and lead vocals, one cannot ignore the importance of the rhythm section support. The rhythm and bass-guitars, for instance, do mercilessly lift the whole up to a level of all-destructive abolition and pulverizing unacceptance. The four- and six-string riffage lifts up the extraneous and abhorrent level of the leads for sure. Quite the same goes for the drum-patterns, which do give the whole that overwhelming atmosphere of havoc, abolition. The percussions and beats won’t allow any respite to recover, mercilessly thundering like an avalanche of toxic smog and mud.
The sound is another story. Or no, it is not. The production is a mental (and sonic) clash, paying tribute to the roots of the scene with pride and persuasion. It totally fits to the whole concept, spitting on the mental state of decency, brutalizing any form of indulgence, hailing debauchery and unchastity. Okay, the sound-quality is rough, unpolished and edgy for sure, yet the mix is well-balanced and the sinister sphere gets glorified by the rawness of the production.
---this might be one of my shortest reviews ever; so what, let the muSICK do the talking; this stuff sits on the throne of blackened purity!---