I recently looked through a Russian cookbook at a nearby bistro, while I was waiting for the sandwich that I'd ordered. The book might as well have been entitled 99 ways to cook a potato, because every single recipe in that book showed a different way of preparing potatoes. As if Russians eat potatoes as the main course for every meal. It showed the different onions, herbs, spices, and ways to cook potatoes. There were recipes for potato pastries and recipes for adding 2 ounces of pork to the potatoes, so that such a small portion of meat could be shared with 4 people. I was amazed to see that there are so many different ways to cook potatoes.
So what the hell does that have to do with black metal? It serves as an analogy for how
Semargl's previous album,
Manifest, sounded. I was amazed at how many ways and times that they copied(and modified) the guitar hooks and leads from the
Satyricon song, Black Lava. This occured in most of the songs(and with multiple variations within some of those songs) on that album. Some of this was broken up with numerous copies and modifications of music from the songs; Under His
Horns( by
Disiplin ) and Freezing
Moon ( by
Mayhem ).
Manifest was still a killer album, despite its lack of originality.
Semargl hail from Ukraine and have built up a reputation for playing some of the darkest black metal in Eastern
Europe. I looked at about 2 of their websites and they contain long rambling writings of satanic propaganda. They can't possibly be serious with this, because it sounds too absurdly self destructive. It must be a gimmick and part of their stage act.
In Eastern European mythology, a
Semargl is a griffin with a dogs head. There are 2 Semargls depicted on the cover of their new album,
Ordo Bellictum Satanas. The song titles comprise a list, with each song beginning with the word, credo. A credo is a statement of religous beliefs, but these song titles are more in line with black metal, though the songs don't live up to their names. This album sounds unlike any of their previous albums. It seems like an experiment, to see if they can fit their black metal into a broader base of European fans.
That makes a lot of sense, since this is their first release with
Twilight-Vertrieb records. This album features John Maudling as a guest performer, who plays piano and keyboards. Some of the music on this album, like Credo Revolution, has an electronica influence. They probably see that as a way for getting some publicity on a European equivalent of MTV.
Credo
Sacrifice, Credo Possess, and Credo Satania all sound something like
Darkthrone, but not even as good as that. Credo Bellictum Satanas, Credo In Chaos, Credo
Insanity(Intoxicated), and Credo
Dead To This World have all taken on a catchier sound like
Old Man's Child, but usually don't rival the vitality of that band.
Credo Flaming
Rain features the guest vocals of Nera, from
Darzamat, she's got a nice voice. This song sounds something like
Battlelore. Her voice is alternated with a guttaral male voice for the old good versus evil vocal structure. Credo Inner
Evil has some very flashy piano music and comes across sounding like
Graveworm. Credo
Vrangsinn features
Vrangsinn from
Carpathian Forest. It's an instrumental of noisy sound effects and synthetic drums.
The first thing noticeable, after you put this album on, is that the songs aren't very dark and they sound a lot looser than their past albums. They sound like they are trying to have fun. Although the lyrical content is black metal material, the music doesn't sound so black. It really sounds more like a goofy strain of death metal. I won't be listening to this album very often and I'll think twice about buying any of their newer releases.
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