As far as splits go, there are several ways of doing them wrong. One of the fundamental ones is of course combining bands with too drastic stylistical differences on the same release. Another one is to choose bands that have nothing in common qualitywise. The latter is the problem here, and the tragic imbalance turns the split into a confusing journey.
Infernal is a colombian band, and their half of the split is an enjoyable experience. Their black metal is based on very good guitarwork, an almost singing black metal lead guitar. The extremely well balanced production hides nothing, and even the reportedly often absent bass can be heard perfectly. There's plenty of melody in the guitar, but the result is an ominous atmosphere and an excellent listening experience. Good black metal has a mood, and here the music has plenty of that. There is a very good guitarist living somewhere in Colombia, and he deserves a nod in acknowledgement of his skill. The songwriting is excellent, and Infernal's half of the split rises way above 90% in rating.
Infernal's half of the split is a pruned version of their A Tragedy Called Existence full-length. That album must indeed be worth hunting for. The french Exelsus Diaboli resides in the other end of the spectrum. Seriously, why the hell were these two bands forced onto the same split? Exelsus Diaboli's half of the split suffers from a few serious syndromes of stereotypical bedroom black metal demos. The vocals are amateurish grumpy "evil" kind, with little credible shrieking/growling. There possibly are decent riffs, and perhaps even some better than average songwriting, but the truly awful production ruins it all.
The chosen style of production is disastrous, obviously on purpose. There's simply so much reverb in the sound that it actually reminds the listener of a Bruce Willis movie. Bruce has spent the first thirty minutes overcoming his hangover, and clad in jeans and a white wifebeater, tries to get away from the band guys with machine guns. Somehow, he finds himself in a ventilation duct, incidentally large enough for a Mini Cooper to drive through. There, in front of him, is a wicked, six-bladed fan of epic proportions, turning too slowly to actually move the air in the duct, but still obviously powerful enough to cut a man in half while idling. Bruce is supposed to shove the crowbar he recently found between the blades and jam the fan temporarily, and thereby get away from the mean central europeans with an attitude, but he can't: there's someone on the other side, stopping him. That someone has his face covered in penguin paint, he looks all evil in his black leather and jew skewers, and slowly lifts his instrument of destruction. It's made of a thighbone if a mighty demon, and covered in cold chrome; it's the Kazoo of Annihilation, and when played through the Black Metal Fan, it stops even Bruce Willis in his tracks, and hope dies. The sound is powerless, wobbly as hell, and screwed enough to simply rob the joy of living from our veisalgious hero.
If listened carefully and with headache-inducing dedication, the tracks by Exelsus Diaboli are not bad; on the contrary. The likely intentional bad production simply ruins it all, and a lot of good stuff is lost in the process.
Yeah, all you black metal wanna-bes, make a note: recording your demo through the leisurely spinning rotor of a CH-47 Chinook might get you a few extra underground points, but it does not help you promote your band. The second half of this split is not impossible to listen to, but it's so annoying that any actual enjoyment is devastated in the process. Well, it's black metal, so it's not like it was supposed to be enjoyed on any level, but making sense would be nice. The contrast between the two halves on this release is too high for a top rating, but the excellence found on Infernal's half raises the rating more than it's fair share. Exelsus Diaboli is lucky to have them on the same split, their contribution is worth less than 50%.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
