Review Summary: The dissonant rituals of times gone by.
Out of the depths of the internet's further reaches comes an embodiment of frenticism. Feral Lord’s take on black metal may cite such influences as Deathspell Omega, Odraza and Oranssi Pazuzu respectively, but when comparing
Purity Of Corruption to more relevant examples I can’t help but draw direct lines to the likes of Acausal Intrusion, whose members are one in the same as Feral Lord. While both records teeter on either side of metal’s more extreme niches, both share the same penchants for winding compositions, jutting instrumental mainframes and frenzied, lo-fi drum productions—but those references mentioned above aren’t lost on me.
It doesn’t take long to figure out where
Purity Of Corruption is taking its listeners. “Terrestrial Obstructions” is a feedback laced saunter, a waltz through the hideous realms of discordant atmospheres and gnarled riffs. Despite the pacing (which sits comfortably between up-tempo black metal and burly death metal and doom-laced sludge), Feral Lord’s
Vargheist Records’ entry is particularly fluid. The title track’s riffs are seemingly ripped from the bowels of a chasm as are the shrieking miasmic vocals that garnish the top of the mix, adding variable levels of dread and suffocating bleakness. As such,
Purity Of Corruption leans into its atmospheres more than its technicality. “Failed Rebirth” exemplifies this atmospheric tension. Winding riffs surge under a framework of dissonant riffing and blast beats, but these elements fight each other for prevalence like two sprinters racing up a steep hill; the jarring melodies slowly falling behind and out of sight, scratched knees and bruised egos.
The initial slower pacing of “Chasm of Horror” instils a chance for the listener to breathe—which is particularly more important around this album’s halfway mark. While the album as a whole only runs for a brief thirty-six minutes, there’s a sparse, almost quashed feel to it’s production. Sure, the drums are deliberately under-polished, providing an air of the “raw” and “organic”, but it’s offset by the one-dimensional feel of the record’s more dissonant flair. “Chasm of Horror” provides a much needed break, if only for a fleeting few seconds. Nythroth’s raspy shriek cuts in and out of the fray, picking up momentum as the record moves into its latter half. Remember that steep hill I mentioned earlier? Both “Sinister Exultation” and the closer, “In The Realm of the Feral Lord” are the downhill run on the other side. Despite only consisting of two members, these tracks feel full, massive, monstrous and in regards to the slower, dirge-like riffs that dominate the back half of “Sinister Exultation”; monolithic. The man (or monster) that styles himself as Cave Ritual puts on a clinic behind the kit (off topic: I do wonder what type of presence he’d provoke with a cleaner, deeper and less ‘raw’ style on an album
like, but not quite this). With all this in mind,
Purity Of Corruption’s larger sound all culminates within the final track. Rather than just dismiss the band’s dissonant styles into carbon-copy descriptors; I find it difficult not to mention the little throwbacks to frenzied melodies. In the last minute of the final track, familiar licks bring this album full circle, and “Terrestrial Obstructions”’ lives again.
Feral Lord have pulled this album out of the depths of some cavern somewhere. It’s like a toothless and malnourished specimen wrote these compositions on the slimed-walls just waiting for someone with the technical ability to blast and pick it. Cave Ritual and Nythroth may have brought this to life in the studio, but I do hope they left a crust for their compositional source to continue scribbling gnarly riffs on the walls.
