Billed as 'Old days/old ways' black metal, Sulpur is the sort of second wave black metal act who absolutely do not fuck around. This is a goddamn beast of a black metal record, one that pays tribute to the traditions of yore and which does not feel the need to lean into any modern day trends. In many ways this record is a sigil of anti-hipsterdom an album that captured the imagination and drives for so much more. It's a delight to get lost in the blazing fury of Embracing Hatred And Beckoning Darkness because Sulpur execute on these classic ideas with aplomb.
The songwriting here is excellent. While even the shortest of the tracks hovers around 7 minutes, the album never gets boring and is a veritable creative wellspring of interesting ideas and takes on classic black metal constructions. It's a delight to lose yourself in the layers of torment here and the monochromatic fury that is unflinchingly unveiled. The presser describes the riffs as 'scabrous' and this seems to be as accurate as it gets. That being said, special attention should also be paid to the clean guitars whose arpeggiated structures that ring out throughout add a real sense of depth to these stunning and mind melting offerings.
Embracing Hatred And Beckoning Darkness is a masterful and endlessly interesting offering. It's a record not for fair weather fans but for die hards who live by this music. The hateful manifesto that Sulpur unveil on this album is delicious and a potent reminder of just how good the band was in the first place. It's a delight to really immerse yourself in all that they do here and to feel the raging black metal fury that defines the band. Lose yourself in these waves of hatred and remember why we chose to burn it all down in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment