The abyss is about to vomit. High ground provides the best view of the spectacle.
This is mainly a black metal record but due to the canny songwriting, rather unstructured and dissonantly free, it seems to wander from lo-fi, atmospheric black regions, death metal even some post metal.
This is a complete assault on preconceived black metal rules and even has the dissonances to make matters worse. But while it might give the listener some sour aftertaste, this is brought by an incredible instrumentation and vocals, and sooner than you might be able to notice, you will start headbanging to this strangely manifestation of trickery and evil.
Limited edition of 10 black & 10 yellow cassettes
If you happen to sympathise with right wing ideologies be informed that Petrale is convinced
that the devil doesn't give a shit about anybody's nationality or wealth
The many different avenues of black metal are never lacking nowadays. For several years now, it has been the case that any aspiring black metal artist could very well carve out their own corner of the already greatly diversified style should they simply have the capacity to bring something new to the sound or, at the very least, really steep their craft with their own unique flavors to truly the performance a personal one that no one else could hope to replicate. For years now, Petrale has been a name that does nothing but justice for such a concept. With every record, the band has become more and more interesting with time, and the honing of the band’s sound allows for an even deadlier creation with each successive release, but it’s with its sixth album in five years that Petrale has made it’s most impactful performance yet. It’s not uncommon for a band to have some sort of arbitrary tagline to go along with the album whether it simply sounds cool or it resonates with the album’s theme. When it came to “Vrh”, however, Petrale’s choice certainly does fit almost too well: “The abyss is about to vomit. High ground proves the best view of the spectacle”. In every way, that gives you more than enough of a glimpse as to precisely what kind of effort anyone who steps foot into these nine tracks of a special, personal hell will subject themselves to. There is so much emotion that ranges all the way from glorious, uncensored catharsis to primal rage fuelled by impassioned disgust with it all being so powerful and compelling right from the start that it makes for a hell of a shock if you’re not ready for it, and there really isn’t much that can prepare you for all that Petrale lets loose on this album. Black metal has never been a style for any mentioned band to turn away from themes of rage, disgust, frustration, or simply cutting loose purely in the name of the darkest form of catharsis, but there really is something special about all that went into “Vrh”. The absolute menagerie of off-putting melodies that pull you further into the very expulsion of the void that Petrale gives us a front seat to make for a wondrous sight to behold as they keep us planted right in place for the very whole of the record while it’s through atmospheres and deep, dense passages that Petrale shows us just how multi-faceted it is right from the very beginning with the utter defiance of the closing moments of “Vrh” giving us what has got to be the most perfect representation of what this band has always been since the start with there being no room left for doubt anymore.
In every way, hearing this record is to hear the very soul and suffering of Petrale. More than plenty of names throughout the history of black metal have strived to bring forth such sensations with their own records to varying degrees of success, but there are few that can compare or even come close to what Petrale accomplishes in these 51 minutes. Nine tracks of deep cutting black metal, I scoff at anyone who would dare say they come through the other side of “Vrh” unchanged or untouched by all that was executed. Petrale are a solo project from Croatia that plays a very dissonant form of black metal and this is a review of his self released 2022 album "Vrh". Whispers start off the album before going into a heavier direction while the solos and leads are also done in a very dark y et melodic style. Vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams along with the faster sections of the songs also adding in a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats which also gives the music more of a r aw feeling. At times the music also gets very dissonant sounding while the riffs also add in a great amount of melody. Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with some songs also adding in a small amount of clean playing as well as all of the musical instruments on the album also having a very powerfu8l sound to them, some of the tracks are also very long and epic in length and one song is also a Dino Dvornik cover. Petrale plays a style of black metal that is very aggressive and dissonant sounding. The production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics are written in a mixture of English and Croatian and cover manifestations of the devil in a rural, Mediterranean, catholic area. In my opinion Petrale are a very great sounding dissonant black metal solo project and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Whispering Fumes" "Invocation Of Silence" "Thrwing Nails" and "Vrh".
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