Finally, after four and a half years…
I will keep my introduction short and concise, and I’d like to refer to one of the other reviews I did in the past for Ars Veneficium, one of the leading Belgian bands within the current Black Metal scene. Links: see below.
Fact is that this third full-length studio album was written by original members S. and Ronarg, who started this band more than one decade ago. You might know Ronarg as well for his involvement with Antzaat and Bloedmaan, while S. is known as the chief-in-command behind Immortal Frost Productions. The latter took care of the texts and the vocals, which were recorded in 2024, while the first performed all strings in 2023. For the registration of the drum parts, the duo collaborated with no one less but Florian ‘Flo’ Musil, whose name you might recognize from bands like Agrypnie (they recently released a new album, Erg, by the way), Theotoxin, The Negative Bias or In Slumber (amongst others).
The Lurking Shadow Of Death is a seven-tracker, clocking somewhere over forty minutes. After a short yet quite ominous introduction, Ars Veneficium immediately show their teeth; a series of pointy, cutting incisors and broken molar teeth, covered in blood, with pieces of raw meat and festering skin in between. Yeah, a survival instinct is needed to escape from this newest aural onslaught.
In the vein of the former efforts, The Lurking Shadow Of Death offers nothing but the essence of Black Metal’s essence and purity. Strongly rooted in the vein of the glorious Old School tradition, finding inspiration within the Scandinavian scene (with the Finnish and the Swedish one in front [rather than the Norwegian]), Ars Veneficium blast, overwhelm and assail, coming with both merciless fury as well as surgical precision. I will get an analysis of both these approaches.
That first element, the ‘merciless fury’, has to do with the hard-hitting execution, the eruptive assaults, the (mainly) fast ‘n’ furious riffing, and the intolerant brutality of the album’s execution. The fiery spirit of the past did not increase; on the contrary, The Lurking Shadow Of Death never seems to retreat; only cowards hare away; death or victory are the only options. I cannot but mention the superior drum-work by session musician Flo, whose skills lift up the strings and vocals throughout he whole album. Sometimes epic, then again overpowering or even all-annihilating, the drums and percussions carry the whole experience with a never-surrendering support. But of course, the incredibly commanding throat of Mister S. is of undeniable importance too in order to define this album’s vigor.
The ‘surgical precision’ has to do with the infallible harmonies, with the interaction in between the musicians, and with the sound. When it comes to the latter: see the next paragraph. Seriously, the song-writing is of a superb level of craftsmanship. The ‘songs’ define the tradition of combative Black Metal from the earlier years, up to these ‘modern’ time. Timelessness it is, yet with a focus on the roots of this Music’s ‘glory’. It is such satisfying given that harmony and violation, decency and abhorrence, seem to mingle organically throughout these seven pseudo-hymnic paeans. The bass, rhythm and lead guitars do play an important role in here, with their precious and considerable amount of harsh lines, of precise tremolo riffs, of fine-tuned twin-leads, of intriguing semi-solos, and of supportive tunes. Everything fits, from the quality of sound (as said: see the next paragraph) over the crafted song-writing, from the performance’s skills up to the cohesion behind the whole album. Once again, Ars Veneficium succeed to reach, and exceed, the highest standards. Also the choice of two guest vocalists couldn’t be any better: Enthroned’s Nornagest on De Glorie Van Dood (‘the glory of death’), which includes some lyrics in French, and Anders Strokirk from Necrophobic (for what it’s worth: one of my all-time favorite bands from Swedish soil!) chanting on My Tomb Under The Stars.
The sound quality is top-notch, and then I mean: superb. The production is very heavy, thunderous, powerful. But it’s with great pleasure that I can add that any form of fake clinically-polished semi-sweetness has been eliminated unmercifully. I mean, despite the neat sound, the result does not sound cheesy or poppy, at all. There is no background noise whatsoever, yet the whole has that fine-tuned roughness, like a gritty palette of glass shards and rusty nails. The mix, done at The Absolute I Productions, taken care of by Infinity’s Draconis, offers what this kind of material needs: the perfect equilibrium in between every ingredient, whether it be the four- or six-stringed guitars (oh, some bass-lines are just seductive), the vocals (which do sound, to my opinion, more angry than before, and less screaming in timbre), or the majestic, thunder-driven drums and percussions. This naturally well-balanced amalgam of vocal and instrumental elements get meticulously canalized into one huge yet coherent illation.
Finally this. Like about always, this stuff gets released on compact-disc and on vinyl; the latter in three different types (classic black, transparent crystal clear, and opaque bone in transparent sea blue / multi-color splatter edition). The CD comes as digipack (with alternative artwork) and as ‘normal’ copy (i.e. jewel-case), with inclusion of a twenty-four-page booklet and a poster, while the three LP-versions do come with an insert and an A2-format poster. And a word about the visuals. Ronarg took care of the paintings (that cover artwork is just sublime: a commander of Hell, a fallen archangel, overlooking fields of death and terror), while layout and design were done by Immortal Frost Productions alumnus WrathDesign (Marko Jerkovič).
https://immortalfrostproductions1.bandcamp.com/album/the-lurking-shadow-of-death
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/ars-veneficium
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/ars-veneficium-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/ars-veneficium-2
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/ars-veneficium-ulvdalir
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/ars-veneficium-azaghal
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/bloedmaan
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/antzaat
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/antzaat-0