CD-R Jewel case limited to 70 copies,
One man band of raw black metal dungeon synth made by "Zarathustra the dead", with nihilistic, anticosmic, misanthrope messages and chaotic nature linked to the presence of death.
Unearthed from a field of flayed victims, slashed and torn cadavers left in its wake, rises the spectral anomaly that is Messiah in the Abyss - whose indomitable lineage can be cast back to Venezuela, those lands of ancient mountain and sunbaked plainland; the homeland of he at the helm of this wicked entity, Zarathustra the Dead. Seemingly born straight from the void, in the year of blood, 2019, Messiah in the Abyss unleashed a deluge of four full incantations rapid execution style; these engulfed with an atmosphere of ambience and raw black metal brutality. Now, with these torturous incantations spent and experienced in full, Zarathustra the Dead has returned, this time to share with us all his Genocidal Journey.
Genocidal Journey opens the incantation with, “0”, a cavernous ambient soundscape that those veterans of Messiah in the Abyss will already know from previous outings. It is only with the wicked casting of the following spell, “End”, that acolytes will realise that the experimental trappings of his earlier works have been refined here; frayed ends of conceptual identity stitched together to create the greatest of Zarathustra the Dead’s grim works thus far. Submerged in a soaring spiral of bright tremolo melodies, surprising percussive patterns, intelligent spell composition and surrealist themes of despair; Genocidal Journey does exactly as it promises with its title, taking those acolytes willing to be shown the horrors all mortal kind has to offer.
A haunting desperation can be found stating the pages of each rune cast on Genocidal Journey, short fire spell, “Maledicti Sunt”, being a prime example of this expression. Melodies played with such anguished ferocity that they shred all emotions of contentment and delusion to dust - Zarathustra the Dead spending every iota of his being to express that which has long since departed from his empty soul. A requiem for an innocence trampled into blood soaked earth. This sense of distress permeates all, even the shattering power chord supremacy of “Demon Soul”, perhaps the most savage offering Zarathustra the Dead offers to the altar, is not free to escape those same tones of possessive despair. It is through this innate construction that Zarathustra the Dead has ensured that this incantation never bores the mind, that each note and emotional fusilade is replete with as much fresh essence as that which came before it.
This instinctive alchemy continues with the overall production and thematic that has been wreathed in choking spindles of rancid barbed wire. Rather than drown the whole of sorcery on display in a torrent of acidic reverb, Zarathustra the Dead has taken restraint in such dissonant practice, allowing each of his tools to work its own magic splendour on its own merit. This leads to a nightmare induced quality surrounding the sorcery on display, one that is difficult to awaken from considering the lucid nature of the instrumentation. Much the same can be scryed for the thematics employed which rely more upon suggestive notions of the human condition and mortal perception, than those of mythological output, which suits the vague wraith king emblazoned upon the physical artefacts cover perfectly.
Genocidal Journey is an eclectic expedition into the darkest hearts of mortal kind - one that strangles the sharp edges of raw black sorcery around a wounded heart of howling desperation. Hallowed record cabals of sanguine esteem, Jem’s Label and Red Door Records, were right to align their own morbid energies with Messiah in the Abyss, with both cabals providing sublime physical artefacts both on wicked tape and fearful wax. All ocular spheres will now be upon Zarathustra the Dead to see what he conjures next from his cauldron of misanthropic alchemy, if he can uphold and elevate the peak of his bloodied career thus far. Only the passing of time will reveal this, but for the dead, time is nothing - a fleeting footnote against the spirals of ennui.
The abyss calls. A new child is torn. Meadows bray and burn. Maledictions of shattered soul creep. The abyss calls. A new messiah is born. Shadows snap and swirl. Crucifixions of broken glass weep. The abyss calls. A new cadaver is shorn. Cosmos warp and worm. Contradictions of mortal soul sleep. The abyss calls.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
