Lista de Bandas Black Death Mhorgl Antinomian

Antinomian is the third release in four years by West-Australian four piece Black Metal band Mhorgl. And for those always on the look for something special in the genre from odd places, I immediately have a disappointment: This is not what you are looking for. Although the band has its strengths in a profound musicianship and a non-instrumentalist vocalist, (Something that always meets my approval, as to many see vocals as just side business and leave it to the instrumentalist with the most acceptable voice), this doesn’t propel them to any great musical deeds.

To soften my harsh judgment of the album somewhat, Mhorgl is by no means alone in producing mediocre Black Metal in the Anglo Saxon countries. Those that have more than rudimentary knowledge of the history of Rock/Metal music will be all too aware that most of the foundation laying work, as well as the greatest highlights in both genres for long times have been an almost entirely Anglo-Saxon affair, with the momentum sometimes shifting from the US to the UK and back.

Even today the USA is very predominant in more than a score of Metal and Rock genres, and although by no means the serious competitor as before, the UK also still produces many a monumental band in various styles. But no other contemporary musical style has, from its origin, been such a continental European affair. From its cradle in Scandinavia, (still an area foremost in BM), Black Metal spread with ease to countries like Germany, France, Poland, Russia and others. In more recent years several bands from Asia, (Notably from China, Singapore, but even from such odd countries as Kyrghyzstan), have proven to be very creative with the genre.

But when it came to crossing the sea, the BM style seemed to lose most of its creative energy in nigh all cases. The only notable exception to this strange rule seems to be Ireland, which indeed has produced some noteworthy outfits (Primordial, Waylander, and others). OK, some bands from Quebec, Canada are surely interesting, but one must remember that over there both the culture and the language are French.

A band like Mhorgl not only had this disadvantage as a burden from the start, but Australia in general would not often turn up in ones list as a forerunner of either Rock or contemporary music in General. True, every decade or so, something great comes from there. Such is not only visible from the meteoric career of ACDC, but one could also mention bands as Rose Tattoo and more recently Wolfmother. But, well, let’s have a look now at what the band actually laid down on the “Antinomian” album:

Listening to the album several keywords immediately come to my mind; Raw, Fast, Traditional & Erratic. Raw, as the band places no emphasis on any refinement in the sound, but oddly enough that doesn’t mean that “Melodic Black” is a wrong term. In all the rawness the lead guitar work does not fail to make such an impression. Fast, almost speedy, well, one has to listen only to the first three tracks to understand fully what I mean. On a more negative note: It not only sounds fast but in fact hasty, a term that would never apply to the great examples of this style. Traditional, as Mhorgl is, they are very careful not to bring in one bit of experiment, and in fact all their style elements are more or less copies from mid-nineties Scandinavian Black Metal. Erratic, as all of the frequent (but usually short) transition and interlude parts in their songs, fall hard on the stomach and often seem grossly out of place.

In the latter part of the review where I will highlight the individual songs, I will come back in more detail to these various elements.


LOGO, ARTWORK, PRODUCTION AND RELEASE.

One thing about the band that certainly deserves praise is their very elaborate and exceedingly well done Logo, (Seems to me an experienced professional has been at work here). As everything surrounding their music, it is indeed a very traditional piece of Black Metal artwork, but in that a very good one.

Sleeve artwork however in no way keeps up with that, depicting a, for the style much to colorful, scene of three devil/demon like figures stepping forward from hellfire; Cliché done in such a misplaced style that it almost becomes kitsch. To make things worse the band doesn’t use its beautiful logo on the sleeve but instead some non-descript 13-in-a-dozen print of their name. They might have felt that the logo would be out of place anyway in such mediocre surroundings…………

Production doesn’t need to have clear faults in it to still not stick out from the average, and this album proves it once again. Music, so raw, fast and so laced with interludes and transitions like this would need a kind of production that brings in at least some depth and clear borders between various parts. None of that all, on the whole it serves only to make the songs sound exceedingly flat and monotonous.

No source whatsoever gives any indication about the label of the album, so I must assume here that it was self-produced by the band. Now, that in itself is nothing special anymore nowadays, certainly not in BM, in which not only, given the enormous amount of newly formed bands, it is difficult to interest a label in the initial stages of a new band, but the general underground nature of the style and the consequent publicity shyness of Black Metalists does not much attract them to established companies also.


THE TRACKS

“Nocturnal Blasphemy”: Titles like this always make me smile a little in contempt: Do Black Metalists have nothing better than such clichés to emphasize “darkness and evil”? But, the track starts hopefully with a fast, traditional BM guitar riff reminiscent of many a mid-nineties outfit. But it soon descends in the raw monotony that is so characteristic for all that is on this album. Especially the vocals give an impression of dreadful unchangingness and monotony. Add a couple of the weird, out of place, interludes, that are equally common on the tracks of the album, and you end up with a not very interesting song.

“Kiss of Midnight”: Is a good deal longer than the opening track, but it is doubtful if that is a blessing. After a short, kind of directionless intro, it goes over in the same fast monotony that characterizes all Mhorgl songs. The melodic efforts of the lead guitar here and there try to give an impression of variety, but largely fail in that, mainly because they are to short and lack the necessary diverseness to do so. But, sharp and well-played they are.

“Iron Clad Destruction”: Might well be the best track of the album, as it is certainly more consistent as for once the (very) short transitional parts are not so odd as usual, but all the negative elements I have mentioned so far a firmly in place here also. Second part of the song shows somewhat more variety as anything else on the album, but sounds in the “I-have-heard-all-that-many-times-before” way.

“Essence of Evil”: At least has a quite interesting intro that also lasts longer than just a few seconds, even when it is also more than classical in nature it shows some interesting guitar works. But after that is done with, it is just more of the same monotony with the never changing vocals, always distorted in the same boring way. Interludes here are clearly better than the main parts but they are reacting like fire and water on each other.

“Necrohatred”: Subtitled “A tribute to Darkthrone” clearly shows the bands roots in early Scandinavian Black Metal, and in fact is the most atypical track on the entire CD. But, well OK, it is essentially copycatting and that is in all respects easier as showing own creativity. For as far deviations from the example are tried they are not exactly successful and certainly no improvements.

“Subterranean Assault Beast”: By the time I get to this song, I really wish the album was over. All the elements of the previous songs are mixed profusely in a track that becomes all the more irritating as you have all heard it more than once.

“The Paean of Hangatyr”: Offers some more room to the melodic solo guitar and at least the first transitional part works a little more organic than usual. It also shows, that if Mhorgl took some of their relentless speed out of at least part of their songs, they could create a more diverse, more interesting concept that would compensate for much of the vocal monotony. Unfortunately in the second half of the composition they fully return to the now all too common boringness of concept with out of place interludes.

“Mr. Crowley”: The closing track is an Ozzy Osbourne cover to which the band has tried to give its own flavor. And that last is a mistake! Mr. Crowley is a good song, as long as Ozzy plays it!


CONCLUSIONS

Mhorgl is not exactly making headlines, and will fail to do so in the future, unless they can get rid of the clear and numerous weaknesses in its compositions and their performance. When I was in school, scoring a “50” for work equaled “insufficient”, but you could get away with one or two provided you managed to show enough compensation in other work. For me the same applies to this production of Mhorgl: It’s not worth more than 10 out of 20, but I could easily forgive them that if they manage to come with more interesting, more diverse productions in the future.