Obscure, depressive Finnish metal unearthed
For any metal fan seeking the truly obscure, the 2007 re-release of Black Crucifixion's 2003 ep Promethean Gift will be a revelation. Beautifully packaged and bolstered with four bonus tracks, the album is just the sort of esoteric curio that'll have Scandinavian metal afficianados drooling all over their Mayhem t-shirts.
The largely unsung Finnish quartet owes a large debt to Celtic Frost, taking that band's tendency for doomy, midpaced darkness and filtering it through the dank, murky atmospherics of black metal's 2nd wave. Gloomy and morose, the four tracks that make up the original EP are a demonic crossroads where vocalist Forn's Tom G. Warrior-esque, cleanly sung baritone collides with sludgy guitar work and sparse, no frills drumming. A layer of keyboards adds even more dour atmosphere to the proceedings, making parts of the record sound almost gothic. It's as if Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy took part in a drunken jam session with Darkthrone and someone set up a four-track to record the bloody aftermath. The primitive musical approach meshes with the dismal ambience of the production to create a sound that is both leaden and darkly ethereal. There is an enigmatic quality to the album, compounded by it's relative brevity and the decidedly shadowy nature of the band themselves.
Things get even more grim from there, as the bonus tracks consist of a 1996 studio track, two extremely rough-around-the-edges demo songs and a live version of the title track from Black Crucifixion's Flowing Downwards demo. The extra tracks help to flesh out the recording and give listeners an even further sense of what Black Crucifixion were all about at that point in their career. The sound is one of raw despondence, sharing much in common with black metal's more depressive strains, but the mournful clean vocals put the quartet firmly in league with more mainstream suicidal Finns such as Sentenced and latter-day Amorphis.
Although Black Crucifixion may be destined to forever inhabit the realm of the arcane, Promethean Gift is an interesting artifact that is sure to please any metalhead who relishes digging up the most cult-worthy recordings. Anyone looking for perfect production values, or any of the trappings of so-called "modern metal" would be advised to look elsewhere.
| Reviewer: Josh Haun Added: January 30th 2008 |
|
