4 page booklet, standard jewel case
Album No 3 from Indonesian raw BM act Forbidden Tomb, "Flame of the Iniquitous Deity" continues with the scrabbly lo-fi, raw and noisy approach with the grim icy ghost vocals in the background. Starting with track 2, " The Enshrouded Moonlight", the music belts away at full speed, rarely looking back, while the ghastly demon voices seethe and plot evil doings. The songs are highly rhythmic, built around repeating riffs that change through the course of the song, though since they are structurally similar and all rocket along at the same speed, they can end up sounding like variations on the same theme. The best way to approach this recording is to just let it rip along and immerse your head in it, letting the sheer malevolence of the vocals penetrate and fill up the space between your ears. A chilling soundscape of eternal blizzard, alien icy cliffs and abysses, and never-ending darkness, formless yet alive with a demonic spirit, plays out on the film screen behind your eyelids.
The track that sticks out the most, mainly because it's a bit slower than the others so the riffs are clearer and the steaming black background percolates better through the noise, is "Shrine of Depravity", coming halfway through the album. The voices bleed better through the music and the percussion is hard-hitting even though much of it is lost in the noisy mix. After this track, the album resumes its usual fast pace with the two final BM-proper tracks that signal the climax of the ritual for which the music is the soundtrack.
Two short ambient pieces bookending the album reinforce the idea of the music being part of a ritual culminating in the revelation of the mystery deity honoured by the ritual and the offering of tribute the deity demands. These short pieces – the intro is an ambient synth-drone work, the outro is unstructured guitar noise with groaning voices and background field recordings of fire – demonstrate a willingness to go in an experimental black / ambient / noise direction for added mood and impact. The intro is dark and creepy and the final piece "Ignis Aeterni" ("Eternal Fire") suggests eternal damnation and agony.
Of course the album could do with a better production and recording that would fully capture the lower-end sonic range of the percussion and bass lost in the noisy mix and give the music more depth and the three-dimensional darkness that goes with it. At the same time though, the raw quality – itself suggesting chaos, rage and pain – might be lost with a more polished style of music. I definitely think the vocals would benefit from being a bit more upfront in the mix as they are the most distinctive aspect of Forbidden Tomb's style. As it is, "Flame …" is best seen as a refinement of Forbidden Tomb's aims and themes, aimed mainly at current fans of this band but not offering anything very different or original that might attract new fans.
Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AAkuvvIWRY&t=484s
