Ignifania ‎"La Divergencia Perpetua Y El Retorno Del Fuego Negro" CD

CD limited 500 copies

From Temuco in south-central Chile (about 610 km south of Santiago) comes atmospheric BM horde Ignifania whose two members Patricio Kusnir and Daniel Hermosilla boast respectable rap-sheets playing in other black metal acts (notably Cenotafio and Invehertex, both in which they play together) and promoting the Chilean underground metal scene through editing and producing a fanzine (Preater Remeaculum Zine) and designing album covers and logos for bands. At this time of review, Ignifania had just the one EP release, "La Divergencia y el Retorno del Fuego Negro" ("The Divergence and the Return of the Black Flame") and nothing more, and there was no clear lyrical theme so it is possible that Ignifania might just be a one-off side project. Then again, who is to say that a side project won't become a main focus for the musicians involved in it at a later time?
The debut release gets off to a good start on Track I (there are five tracks numbered I to V) with a beautiful and polished looming-storm ambience and low drone that erupt into tinny trashy raw BM belligerence, all biscuit-tin blast-beat bashing, junk guitar shredding and lots of growling with a production job that gives the whole shebang a shrill bleached-out sound. The impression is of overwhelming and suffocating chaos in which souls crying in pain and torment are being whirled around for all eternity. What a way to introduce the unwary and the innocent to the underground metal scene in Temuco - there'd be few bands on the planet who could do this better, blasting away continuously until all listener resistance melts away completely. The only problem here is the music seems very under-powered and thin, and perhaps a better production would have given this song and the album generally a deeper and more powerful and menacing sound.
Each track is not that different in pace, attitude and minimal style than the one before it and the one after, and if you're of the easily distracted kind, the main way you'd know tracks are ending and beginning is through the ambient codas attached to them. A few tracks stand out more than others for particular details though: Track III has some off-key dissonant chords that give it a queasy feel as it seems to lurch through different wormholes in Hell all at once. Track IV is memorable mainly for the acoustic guitar melody that comes near the end before the mists and the warm synthesiser drone rise over it. Track V comes closest of the lot to being a definite song with clear riffs.
For nearly 30 minutes Ignifania bring forth a glimpse of what awaits all souls in eternal Hell and it sure ain't a very pretty experience. While the duo thrash and shred and howl their hearts out on this recording, it does become repetitive and even a bit monotonous, probably because the music needs more layers of sonic texture and a stronger sub-bass sound. Real depth and fuller, more lush and decadent atmospheres with a real sense of evil intent could then be achieved. To some extent, Ignifania try to compensate by rocketing at a fast pace, filling all the space in each track with riffs and screaming galore, and varying the music with passages of ambient drone. This certainly is a fierce beginning for Ignifania but I think this band has some work ahead of it to develop a fuller sound to capture a truly terrifying portrait of Hell as a warning to us all of where we're going.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...