Members of Grimm, Cirith Gorgor, Walpurgisnacht, Theudho...
Black thrash manifestation of The Spirit Cabinet cult. Re-released in 2022 on The Ritual Productions in a limited edition of 300 copies.
Naming an album like this "Cult of the Necro-Thrasher" is on par with "Snakes on a Plane" as far as subtlety and WYSIWYG-ness goes, but it does what it says on the tin. A glance at the back cover should clear up any remaining confusion as to the content: four battle-vested ghouls in Sarcofago-style eye paint overlaid with Olde English-fonted songs with titles like "Cry of the Jackal Child" and "Heavy Metal, Raise Hell!"... this is a throwback to the first wave of black metal and Euro thrash, with the slightest nod or two towards W.A.S.P. and "Shout at the Devil"-era Motley Crue.
That's not to say (despite the band's proclamation of playing '80s metal exclusively) that this sounds like a relic of that era. Clearly Zwartketterij (Dutch for something like "Black Heresy" if my online translator can be trusted) know their second wave BM too, though it is only strongly evoked in one song. It isn't like they have pretended the last 20 years hasn't happened; this is a trip back to the blackened roots of the genre from a contemporary perspective. Zwartketterij have benefitted from having a broad and long-range view of what coalesced into black metal post-1991 and picked the best of the proto-BM sounds to create this ripper: the first Bathory record, King Diamond, Sextrash, Hellhammer, Sodom. Add to this an appropriately hideous rasp, surprisingly strong clear vocals, killer riffs, violent/perverted/ridiculous lyrics, and songwriting skills (an art lost on much BM in the '90s) and this is just about as good as this stuff gets.
The album starts, appropriately enough, with a "Rosemary's Baby" sample (as I said, subtly is not really the point here) before "Cry of the Jackal Child" kicks in with an all-out thrash attack. All the band's strengths are on display as they switch from the viciousness of the verses to the more melodic clean-voxed chorus, in a voice that sounds more than a little like Snake from Voivod. Alternating "smash everything for Satan" thrash parts and "up with evil" anthemic bits seems to be the mandate from here on through. The title song follows with an unlikely mash-up of Bathory blast and riffs that, oddly, put me in mind of "Blizzard of Ozz". "Macedonian Horror Cries" has both war and necrophilia lyrics as well as a power chord and somber chorale vocals in the bridge (yes, a bridge!)-- it shouldn't work but absolutely does.
"Carnival, Death, Demons," "Lick My Chainsaw, Bitch!", and "Heavy Metal, Raise Hell," seems to be a trilogy of gleefully misogynist idiocy that is so catchy and puerile that it's a little hard to be offended. Sample these lyrics:
"Alcoholic intoxication, whips lashing/
To spank the bitches of the dead/
Demons in leather, denim and spikes/
Turning the crosses upside down/
The Devil's Sign!"
So, respectively, that's one about a graveyard orgy, one Leatherface tribute, and one that takes W.A.S.P.'s "Blind in Texas" to a whole new extreme. Maybe someone is still trying to piss off the PMRC?
"The Hammer of Hardrock" takes for its subject matter the third most celebrated theme in heavy metal (after Satan and sex): heavy metal itself. Ok, lyrics about "horned fists high" and crushing posers is pretty corny but you can't argue with the sincerity of the messengers. If this song doesn't have you throwing the goat in the air like you were possessed by the Devil or Dio himself then you are far too grim to rock. Closer "Titans of Torment 666" is only track that betrays an influence of more recent vintage. There is amongst the thrash chords, hard rock chorus and almost-falsetto, an unmistakable Mayhem-style black metal riff the brings the genre full-circle.
Zwartketterij has a achieved a nearly flawless summation of everything black, spiky, decadent, thrashy, Satanic, and, um, fun about black metal from Venom to Mayhem. "Hail the 80's Metal Spirit!!", indeed.
Sample:
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