Limited Edition to 250 copies on Black Vinyl 12". 180 gr. Vinyl. Comes with Insert.
I don't think the metal community quite understood Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion at the time of its release, and even now it doesn't get the mentions it deserves. Overlooked despite its excellent cover art, a 1.5 man black metal side-project, this is actually the best Old Man's Child album and shows what you can achieve by not overdoing things, and just getting the songs done and dusted, with wobbles and imperfections and all. The catchiness of the music can't be overestimated, and there's just enough of everything to sound vibrant but not like a wall of sound. The drums are rich and organic, and played by Gene Hoglan. You can expect a lot of funky tom fills, musical metal beats and bright, warm cymbal-work. The guitars are fast, melodic, imperfect, and so utterly perfect. The keyboards are just enough to add atmosphere and a strange Middle Ages wizardry. Ornamentation, not irritation.
Essentially, Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion is a black metal album made up out of melodeath and thrash stylings, but the lyrics are all whimsically Satanic, and the overall atmosphere is as black as night outside an early 00s city-centre metal club in wet November. It's dark, and fun, and musical, and broadly fast-paced, and is certainly Old Man's Child's razorblade-with-a-smile album. Galder, of Dimmu Borgir fame, plays nearly everything, and does all the vocals, but 40% of the album's sonic space is left over for Hoglan's drums, and there's that certain heaviness you get from a 3-piece band, present on Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion. If you wanted a Halloween album that's complex enough for metal fans but also whimsical enough to just about get by at a house party, Old Man's Child has something for you.
The sense of fun on Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion belies the darkness of the music, and the lyrics are very, and happily, locked in a certain black metal niche. It's all classic metal, and black metal tropes spat out with unselfconscious venom. All the songs are pinned back to the minimum they need to be catchy, and nothing here, note-wise, is wasted. The clarity and punch of the album itself is such that you'll be air drumming along almost immediately. Hoglan's toms are tuned very low and boomy, and the rest of his kit is given prominence in the mix. Never was there a more joyous and spontaneous black metal drum performance. You can hear the drums and the recording room, and it's like you're present at the recording. All the small wobbles and fluctuations are vibrant and humanised. Hoglan's blasts are musical, and the double bass patterns haven't been smoothed out artificially.
Fall of Man, God of Impiety, Demonaical Possession all feature effervescent riffs, repeated guitar melodies, tempo shifts, and effective keyboard ornamentation. There is no loss of groove in favour of pace, and every song has its own identity, and all the songs together fit perfectly in order on Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion. From the opening keyboard refrain on Towards Eternity, to the final track, Thy Servant, you just know this underappreciated Old Man's Child album will bounce along keeping the listener pegged between the dark atmosphere, and the fun, spontaneous musicianship. Thy Servant ends proceedings on Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion and was the song chosen for magazine cover CDs at the time, despite being oddly structured and quite proggy, and ending with a hyper Iron Maiden coda. It's bouncy, fast, melodic, and sounds as if someone added in some major key notes and a bit of late 70s funk drumming to Dissection. On Demoniacal Possession we hear,
Sweet is my vengeance for I can taste its blood
Blessed are my sins and all I with evil do,
Strong I will pray for the end of morrow day
I believe the devil and I will burn in hell
The only criticisms of Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion are that the bass usually follows the guitar lines somewhat linearly, as a thickening mechanism, and a second guitarist, again, might have filled the sound out a little. A two-piece band, playing like a three piece, coherent song structures, consistent lyrical themes, excellent cover art, a 40-odd minute album length, give it a play; it's a black metal album with a sense of fun, and shows you don't have to burn buildings or murder people to be the real deal. Essentially a side project to Dimmu Borgir, Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion ends up being a more serious black metal entity precisely by keeping a sense of humour, and self-awareness.
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