Today isn’t really going to be a great one on this site for any hardcore Christians, though I can’t imagine there are a ton of those in this audience. The scourge this faith has had on this nation alone is disgusting and devastating, as it’s used as a means and an excuse for stripping away rights from people and has been used to justify unspeakable violence and hide horrifying sex crimes for-fucking-ever.
Not that Black Eucharist necessarily have the social impact of organized religion in their crosshairs on crushing debut record “Inn of the Vaticide,” focusing on the destruction of a prophet. Yeah, I think you know the one. This is grim, fiery black metal with a death mission, and yeah, it’s a trope for black metal to float in these bloody waters, but this band—vocalist/guitarist Infestor, bassist Gravepisser, drummer/vocalist Shemhamforash—makes you believe in their mission. These tracks feel like they’re aiming to slice jugulars in half, waging a war against a religion that itself has a body county and has led many from a profession of faith to a campaign of hatred. Anyway, yeah. This is utter blackness.
“Black Ejaculate” opens the record, and it’s the name this band operated under before going to their current moniker. A Bible reading starts before things gets warped and ugly, the blackening skies opening and pouring blood. Raw howls destroy as the power stampedes, vicious hell lays waste to everything in front of it, and snarling devastation melts into a pile of filth. “Deflowering Jerusalem” plasters with flattening playing and the growls eating away, going into a delirious attack. Gargantuan mashing works at your psyche, crushing all the way to the end. “Drowned Flock” brings charred riffs and thrashy chaos, the guitars making blood boil and bubble. A battering ram is unleashed as everything feels like a blast furnace roaring in your face, a warped hymn carrying the playing into terror. The title track arrives with piledriving force, absolutely slaughtering with madness, bringing absolute menace. Maniacal strength and crazed wails increase their intensity as massive power swallows peace whole, and a stymying assault brings a pulverizing end.
“The Soiled Crucifix” is a quick instrumental with whipping winds, strange synth bringing a trancey vibe, and the temperature making your mental health feel in question. “Broken Staff of the Shepherd” is the longest track at 8:08, and it feels humid and punishing at the start, the growls digging into wounds, and then everything tears open into a full-fledged assault. The playing is blinding as the teeth sink into necks, the vocals massacre, and delirious playing makes your balance something completely out of your control. Scorching hell meets up with flattening darkness, stoking fires and bringing a vicious ending. “Ziziphus Paliurus” torches from the start but also packs some melodic guitar work, making it the most approachable track on the record. But it’s still feral as hell, tormenting while it infects, channeling poisoned pressure that leaves blood behind. Closer “A Foul Stench Lingers at Peor” is animalistic as it speeds and trashes, plying you with dizzying playing that absolutely unloads. Mangling, warping jolts strike as riffs destroy, punishment cascades, and angelic horrors are painted across the sky.
Black Eucharist bring metallic vulgarity and scornful anger on “Inn of the Vaticide,” a record the world utterly needs right now as organized religion, in this case Christianity, tries to force itself on people and corrupt laws in this very country. This is a filthy, unquestioned attack on that machine, something that likely will upset your Trump loving neighbor, and good because fuck that guy. Prepare for ugliness, violence, and terror, a record that will leave your heart burnt to a crisp.
For more on the band, go here: https://blackeucharist.bandcamp.com/album/cum-soaked-messiah
To buy the album, go here: https://stygianblackhand.bandcamp.com/album/inn-of-the-vaticide
For more on the label, go here: https://www.stygianblackhand.com/
Meat Mead Metal 