Recluse "Stillbirth In Bethlehem" CD

Raw/Harsh extreme Black Metal featuring Wlad Drakksteim on vocals

Possessed and murderous black metal. Wlad Drakksteim of Vlad Tepes vomits forth vocals alongside McSorley throughout the entire album. Repellant and violent.
RECLUSE are the true embodiment of EVIL.
"Recluse - one who prefers the company of themselves, seldom bothering to enter the murky world of strangers. Looking at the song titles, it's probably for the best. Not content with being un-PC and straight to the point, Recluse brings black metal back to the halycon days of the early 90's, weaving disgusting concepts into a tapestry of pure hatred and vitriol. This is how it was always supposed to be. If the blatant attack on Jesus isn't suggestive enough from the album title, Recluse is joined on this record by Wlad (he of Vlad Tepes and LLN fame), who has secured a place as the permanent vocalist of Recluse. It's not every day one of the most famous musicians in the extreme underworld of metal handpicks a band the other side of the world to fill his resume - but Recluse isn't just any band."
Man, this is a pretty interesting one. This is intentionally sloppy, uncompromisingly raw, surprisingly atmospheric at times but more or less the embodiment of hate and impulse. McSorely's fascination with the LLN scene shines through here, and he even managed to get Wlad from Vlad Tepes to share the lead vocalist role with him. While this features frequent onslaughts of raw black metal filth, there's lots of lingering acoustics, weird chanting and reverb soaked atmospherics. This definitely has atmosphere, but no one said it was a friendly one.
Remember that mammoth soundscape experiment called "Ritual use of Fire" on the end of Cobalt's Landfill Breastmilk Beast EP? If not do you remember the "Ritual use of Fire" interludes on Eater of Birds taken from that piece? If so you'll recognize this as largely being a black metal equivalent of "Ritual use of Fire". The atmospheric parts, especially the creepy acoustic guitar, are very in line with that style.These become more and more prominent as the album unfolds, with the second half being infested by weird hellish soundscape experiments. However, this is where the comparisons to Cobalt begin and end.
Both Wlad and Phil sound supremely pissed off here, and wail and rasp with no shortage of vigour. While this certainly isn't a straight ahead riff fest, there are some cool riffs here, although they're a tad buried under the sludge-stained production. The mixing is pretty nonexistent, but this isn't too bad because it fits the chaotic and willfully sloppy clusterfuck sound. The drums are particularly sloppy, but Phil is competent and it just adds to the chaos.
With confrontational and controversial song titles such as "Deformed Faggot of Bethlehem" and "Hasidic Insect" it becomes apparent that Phil doesn't give a fuck about how he is perceived anymore and is willing to put fire on the gasoline still lingering from that whole fiasco that got him booted from Cobalt. Overall, this definitely isn't for everyone, regardless or not if you're deep into black metal. This is very experimental, raw and hellish and fans of the LLN will probably get a kick out of this. It's no doubt a difficult album and very much less straightforward than previous Recluse material, but still a very interesting release.

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