Saturday 29 January 2011

[ALBUM REVIEW] Massemord - Notes of Antihate Profound



1. Cognition of Fear
2. Masskilling Masshealing

Notes of Antihate Profound is a short two song EP by Polish black metal stalwarts Massemord. Active since 2000 and with three full length albums already on the mantelpiece, Massemord know what they're doing. They've been around long enough to establish their name as one of the more relevant and successful acts to come out of the Polish scene in recent years.

First thing's first, if you have heard Massemord before, then you should know exactly what to expect, for the two tracks on this release follow exactly the same procedure as before; hammering the shit clean out of the drums until they're obliterated, traditional styled tremolo riffing and raw scathing rasping vocals straight from the book of Legion. “Textbook definition of old Marduk?” you say? Almost but not quite. The comparisons are inevitable to anyone playing this style of Black Metal these days but the two song's “Cognition of Fear” and “Masskilling Masshealing” are saturated with dynamic and pulverising riffs speared by Namtar's savage vocals, and conjure an arctic, knife laced atmosphere to boot, which is where so many of these bands fail. It may follow a fairly washed-out formula, but Massemord are one of the few in the small percentage who can pull it off without sounding completely derivative.

Notes of Antihate Profound is extremely well performed on a whole. It is only an EP so it was always going to be short, but I suppose is an apt showcase of the bands sound, because the rest of the material doesn't differ from this at all. It's the band's forte for being able to create some distinctly impressive riff driven black metal that snared me. No it's not original or revolutionary, but it will fill a gap and is certainly more than engaging. In short, fans of Marduk will love this short chaotic release of unholy violence, for others who aren't too sure, it's a good sampler of what the rest of their releases have to offer. One thing though, have they been taking lessons from Dimmu Borgir on how to name their releases?

80/100

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