I don’t understand how everyone in existence doesn’t wake up every morning just screaming and screaming over … everything. Fuck. This is a hellscape almost constantly, social media should have been an amazing advancement for humanity and it’s a sewer, and fascism is back? Really? In 2023? Goes to show we’re not super good at learning from history.
“White Hart!” (exclamation point on purpose) sounds like the general reaction to the earth as it is now, and Slidhr pack 45 minutes into eight tracks of anger and ferocity trying to deal with this reality that we’ve been dealt. The band has been around closing on two decades, and they’ve always been savage, but never like they are on this record. The amount of disgust and bile is evident right away, but so is the black metal mastery they jam into this mammoth of an album. The band—vocalist/guitarist Joseph Deegan, bassist/vocalist Stefan Dietz, drummer Bjarni Einarsson—claims Irish and Icelandic roots, but their hearts are in the depths of hell, exacting revenge on who put us here and creating music that is a battle ax designed to go through the antagonists’ hearts.
“The Temple Armoury” opens strangely, almost like a warped sea chanty as they sing, “They poison the spirits, they poison the sea,” and as that swims through your head, they unload with doomy fury that scars, ripping as the howls smother. Black metal heat gets rolling as crushing, melodic waves crash down hard, almost as if it has insulting intent. The playing splatters as the guitars sweep, fiery, smearing chaos rides, and the drums maul as noise stabs. The title track flattens and drubs, mangling as explosive terror works toward you, the guitars leaving burn marks. The heat continues to build as the catchiness envelopes, ripping out into time. “Sacred Defiance” brings dark growls and a menacing delivery, slashing with rusted knives, maniacal intensity making your struggle even more defined. The guitars bleed as the cries encircle, even going toward gothy, chilly winds, exploding anew and slaying to the end. “Trench Offering” is foggy and confounding, igniting an anger that storms through your system, the growls scarring your psyche. Heaviness presses as the playing grows delirious, going into a molten fury that squeezes your bowels until everything fades.
“What the Gauntlet Bestows” gives off a strange aura, smearing your senses, the growls crushing wills and stomping bones. That violence turns into a hypnotic stretch, messily spreading colors and energies, making you feel like you’re not good on your feet, and then they meet you with thrashy devastation. Clean calls below, acoustic strains rain down, and you’re pinched into a psychotic break. “The Bloodied Tongue” delivers mashing guitars and gruff growls, the leads glimmering and making you see stars. Mystical strangeness spreads and gets inside your head, and the howls wrench, adding pain to your pleasure, crunching to the very end. “Wall of the Reptile” has noise trailing and riffs blasting, and then everything explodes as the drumming spits nails. The growls dig under your fingernails as a warped heat tightens its grip, warping and mystifying. The intensity spikes as the playing pummels, torching to a blistering end. “Hate’s Noose Tightens” closes things, and a great riff slices down the middle, the singing feeling like it’s coming straight from the gut. Chugging and mashing does ample damage, and the guitars launch an assault you’re never going to stop, dark folds drilling, desperate wails calling out into the stars, the attack finally bleeding toward oblivion.
Slidhr have a bloody agenda on “White Hart!” a record that’s flowing generously with hatred and contempt for what’s becoming an inhospitable world that grows sicker by the day. This bloodletting likely is as close as this band, and you as a listener, can come to a sense of catharsis, even if that’s through fire. Over eight songs, you can visit with your unhealthiest thoughts, your disgust with the world, and let this hellacious beast become part of your healing or at least your ability to tolerate constant bullshit.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/slidhr/
To buy the album (North America), go here: https://debemurmorti.aisamerch.com/
Or here (Europe): https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/12-eshop
For more on the label, go here: https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/
Meat Mead Metal 