Genre - Black Metal
1. Jacob’s Ladder
2. Jonah
3. Sternenfall
4. Death Worship
5. The Black Projector
6. Second Coming Of The Pig
7. Deus Irae
8. Jericho
Fresh off their recent signing to
Season of Mist, Parisian black metal super-group Hell Militia have
returned with their third offering and follow up to 2010's 'Last
Station on the Road to Death'. With a roster boasting names who are
linked with likes of Arkhon Infaustus, Bethlehem and Vorkriest among
others spearheaded by the enigmatic genius that is former Mutiilation
mastermind Meyhnach, it's hard to look past such a pedigree of names.
On paper Hell Militia should be
untouchable with such a lineup but previous efforts were below
average attempts at something which boasted so much more. 'Jacob's
Ladder' is a vast improvement on the preceding albums it must be
said, the band have appeared to continue their stylistic shift
towards a manifestation more similarly aligned with the likes of
Ascension, Dodecahedron and countrymen Deathspell Omega while still
retaining that traditional orthodox Swedish vibe of Watain, Ofermod
and the ilk.
When you look at the aforementioned
bands recent success that can be a hard point to argue against. So
does it work? To a degree yes but it's a style that has been
performed and perfected so many times before now by the likes of DSO
and Blut Aus Nord that it's inevitable anything anywhere remotely in
the same vein immediately gets stacked up and dissected against what
is essentially some of the best black metal created this side of the
millennium, which just doesn't seem fair does it?
It is by no means bad though, the likes
of the title track initiate things with an intense whirlwind of
breakneck blasting and heavily obscure, piercing riffs accompanied by
Meyhnach's wretched vocal delivery does make for some immersive
listening at times even if this is a path extremely well worn by now.
Meyhnach's vocals are arguable the
standout aspect of 'Jacob's Ladder', something which holds true for
pretty much every album he's ever performed on, I mean just try and
tell me 'Vampires of Black Imperial Blood' would be anywhere near
lauded as much as it is without those twisted, schizophrenic vocals.
The guitar work is well enough executed, steeped in layer upon layer
of scything, caustic dissonance and the drumming tight and dynamic
enough and when intertwined make for a heavily intricate and
multi-faceted release which in practice should sound fantastic but in
reality lacks that final sheen and memorability to really take this
album to the next level.
For every decent passage there's
another passage of exhausted and uninspiring boredom that has you
reaching for the skip button. Take for example the likes of 'Death
Worship' with its basic one dimensional rhythm and utterly stale
riffing and the tedious and plodding dirge of 'Jericho' which
overstays its welcome by about five minutes and you certainly have a
lot of room for improvement.
Still though, tracks like 'The Black
Projector' which contain some of the most impressive guitar work
here, discordant ringing and sweeping riffs envelop the listener in a
malevolence and filth that is unfortunately missing from a vast chunk
of the rest of 'Jacob's Ladder'. Similarly 'Second Coming of the Pig'
also harbours some fantastic pummeling moments of swirling chaos and
an illustration that this isn't all complete monotony. And for fuck
sake cut out those shitty B-movie samples next time around, the
cliché barrel is completely and thoroughly scraped through in that
regard.
Unfortunately once again Hell Militia
fail to really deliver anything remotely threatening to those that
they so obviously aim to emulate though it is at least an improvement
on their previous releases which were to be frank, fucking shite.
There are certain moments of inspiration scattered here and there but
ultimately that's just not good enough and though the musicianship is
indeed pretty impressive it doesn't have any particular coherence or
definition. 'Jacob's Ladder' promises so much yet what we're left
with is something altogether far too formulaic and non-eventful that
it just wont cut it these days.
Sounds like - Watain, Deathspell Omega, Ondskapt
No comments:
Post a Comment