I'll be completely honest with you I am a bit of an amateur when it comes to black and death metal. I am only really familiar with the more well known bands of the genre; Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Carcass, Entombed and so on. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit to knowing almost nothing about Black Altar or Vulture Lord until choosing this to review but something about this split EP caught my attention and I thought I'd give it a go. The thing for me with black metal is that I find it can sound too samey, the songs blend into one another and the overuse of the double bass drum pedal has a white noise effect on my ears. The main thing I noticed with Deathiah Manifesto is that these two bands show what is great and what is not about this particular genre. Not only did I, for the most part, have fun listening to this album but I really enjoyed researching the career of Black Altar and Vulture Lord in preparation for not sounding like a total dunce.
Black Altar formed way back in 1996 in Olsztyn Poland. Over the course of their 26 year career they have released two full length albums self titled Black Altar (2004) and Death Fanaticism (2006). Further to this they have a 5 track mini album/EP Suicidal Salvation (2013) and at least three split EP's over the years with bands Varathron, Thornspawn, Beastcraft and now Vulture Lord. They have gone through a few line up changes with vocalist Shadow being the one remaining original member. Two interesting things I discovered about Black Altar are 1) the band are now based in London, UK and 2) over the course of their long career they have yet to play a live show. Their official website has not been updated recently but I did see a post from early 2020 announcing that they would be playing their first ever gig at the Subterranean Manifestation Festival in London on Halloween 2020 and then onto Glasgow in November. Now we all remember what happened in 2020 right? From what I found out that particular festival was of course cancelled so I am wondering if these guys are still yet to play a live gig?
This is by the by though as I am here to talk about Deathiah Manifesto. This 8 track split EP is led by Black Altar who with help of Ludo "Evil" Lejeune (owner of Evil Omen Records, musician and composer in Melek-Tha) created the haunting, sinister and choral intro and outro tracks leaving Black Altar with only 2 of their own tracks. The single they released before the EP "Sacrilegious Congregation" is a crashing cacophony of black metal with relentless drums that naturally flows through into the next track "Nyx". This track does change things up a bit midway through before the outro floats back in to a chilling finale. Black Altar to me are one of those black metal bands whose songs do all kind of sound the same and all blend into one. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between the instruments. At times a punchy bassline will jump out at you and then disappear as quickly as it appeared.
Vulture Lord formed in Norway, again in the latter half of the 90s and like Black Altar have also had a few changes in line up. They have featured on many compilations albums over the years but only have two full length albums to their name; Profane Prayer(2003) and Desecration Rite (2021) so a gap of 18 years between the two. Desecration Ritewas recorded about the same time as Deathiah Manifesto but released in August 2021. Vulture Lord bring a combination of black and thrash metal to the mix which for me is way more fun! I think putting these two bands together was a great blend. It certainly is an album of two halves with a clear definition between the genres. Vulture Lord have much more energy to them which is plainly evident from their first track. "Dominios Of Death" a cover version originally by Brazilian metallers Vulcano. Their single from the EP "Hark! The Hymns Of War" is a frantic blast almost like a satanic cloning of Sodom. "Bloodstained Ritualknives" is a fun attack on the senses but I'm thinking it was recorded at a different time or place as the sound quality is considerably poorer than the rest but despite the muddy sound it's a good track. The final track "Usurper, Thy Name Is Death" is a dramatic instrumental number taking the line voiced by Vincent Price as Prince Prospero from The Masque Of The Red Death (1964) "Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a God who rules it? Famine, pestilence, war, disease and death... they rule this world!" as the album fades out in a flourish of hate, corpse paint and inverted crosses.
As I said earlier Deathiah Manifesto is an album of two halves; one for devoted fans of black metal and one for people like me that appreciate the sentiment but require something a bit more energetic. It is not that I did not like Black Altar I just didn't feel that they brought anything new to the mix. Their songs were well structured and performed but it all just sounded the same most of the way through. The drums rarely seem to change from a constant deluge, the guitar often wanders off on its own tangent and the vocals are often indecipherable. They don't do themselves any favours either by getting someone else to do their intro and outro tracks. I feel a little bad for saying this about them as reading the many positive comments about them on YouTube saying that they are "true black metal" but I guess true black metal is really not my thing. I have learnt something about myself today. Out of the tracks Black Altar did do I would say "Nyx" is my favourite as the bass at times really cuts through. For me it is all about Vulture Lord, they are so much more engaging, lively and entertaining. Recording wise it all sounds pretty good apart from Vulture Lords "Bloodstained Ritualknives" which as I said is a bit dodgy. The artwork is the thing that really caught my eye. Designed by Indonesian artist Jenglot Hitam purveyor of prolific brutal black metal artwork and merchandise. Deathiah Manifesto's cover art depicts the grim reaper and his band of skeletal minions harvesting new souls drawn in black and white. This does actually scream "true black metal" at me and I really like it!
Deathiah Manifesto is available through Odium Records and all who are involved bandcamp page on black or red vinyl or on CD in an 11 panel digi pack in the shape of an inverted cross.
