My first contact with Barbarian Swords was “Anti-Dogma Megaforce”. I stood in a firestorm of eruptive fury and before I understood what happened, everything was burnt to ash. I thought this is their usual way to kill everything which is not quick enough under cover, but lo and behold, I was a fool. The album from 2023 was the exception, not the norm. After the ridiculous period of only seven months, Barbarian Swords return with “Fetid” to their original style. True nihilist black doom metal is the name of their game. What I also want to say is “death to infidels”. I do not really know why, but the band says it as well and so it is certainly correct.
Regardless of nonsensical slogans, it is true that the Spanish play an adequately blackened form of doom metal. The vocals are definitely no doom vocals in the style of Count Raven’s Ozzy-soundalike and they do not have anything in common with solemn Candlemass-vocals. Disgust, hate and wickedness, this is what they express and so they are responsible for the black metal element. The constantly ominous and numinous aura of the songs reflects the aesthetics of the blackest metal genre as well, while the creeping rhythms, of course, add the fatal, slow component. So this time the enemy is not being bombarded with deadly missiles from all angles at the same time. But the red-hot, viscously flowing and sinisterly bubbling lava that is poured out in front of the foe is not a bit more pleasant. The material has still a very cruel core, although it is less intensive than the songs of “Anti-Dogma Megaforce”. “Genocidal Theogony”, for example, starts somewhat aimlessly. It gains intensity during some keyboards dominated (yet very heavy) sections and it is a good song, but it gives the listener room to gasp for air. This form of sloppiness (a hard word, admittedly) did not exist on the album from 2023.
In terms of the mix, Barbarian Swords have lost nothing of their directness, their sharpness and their devastating undertone. The cutting guitars know no mercy, the drums sound clean yet powerful. Moreover, the keyboards appear as an additional trump card, not as a tool to wipe away the metallic strength of the material. This is a really great technical execution and that makes it difficult to find one or two passages that are too long really bad. Nevertheless, from my point of view the songs are very opulently arranged. I understand the will to attack the enemy on the entire width of the battlefield, but focussing on individual attacking spearheads might have been better. The single songs coalesce with each other and it feels that you would rather listen to a single, deadly monumental work than six different titles. This is no big deal, “Fetid” deserves a good rating, but for high speed lovers like me, its predecessor is the slightly better work. Warriors of doom metal will see it differently. But they and I will surely agree on something else: it was extremely mean of Barbarian Swords to design their cover in the way it is now. We won't be able to expect a new Overkill album for years, because the green colour is sold out for years to come.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=Bxr3mPg12PE&t=698s
