Fides Inversa

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Band(s): Fides Inversa
Label(s): Self-Released
Release Format(s): Cassette, EP
Release Year: 2024
Review Date: February 1, 2025
Author(s): VincentP

It’s been rather quiet around Fides Inversa, but in late November 2024 the band made their return to the stages, performing at the Unholy Congregation festival in Belgium. To mark that resurfacing, the band released a limited number of 100 tapes entitled ‘Pillars’. On it, we find a source of inspiration, and a sign of things to come.

The title of the EP alludes to the first track ‘Pillars of the Adversary’, a song meant as a teaser for a forthcoming album. On it, we find the band at its sharpest and most ferocious. Compared to the ‘Rites of Inverse Incarnation’ EP and the subsequent ‘Historia Nocturna’, the band has opted for a much more bareboned and violent approach to Black Metal. Stripped of the finesse, the band instead goes for sheer madness and intensity. With a sharp echoing guitar sound, the sliding, tapping and shifting riffs, whammy solos, maniacal vocals and relentless drums, this is by far the most aggressive we have heard the band. With a sense of controlled chaos one cannot deny clear influences from not only Darkthrone, but even more so Katharsis. While this was not necessarily a band that came to mind with previous Fides Inversa material, here it just makes sense. And that latter is more than likely fueled by the second track on ‘Pillars’, ‘Eden Belovv’, which was originally released by Katharsis on their stellar ‘VVorldVVithoutEnd’ album. For the most part, Fides Inversa stays true to that malevolent fury, albeit with a slightly less raw sound. Since vocalist Wraath is no stranger to a howling range of vocals, his style does more than justice to the original in this cover. Add a few frenzied solos on top and we can only come to the conclusion that this is a more than interesting cover interpretation that fits perfectly with their own track.

Of course it will be interesting to see if ‘Pillars of the Adversary’ marks the shift for Fides Inversa into a more Katharsis-like direction on the upcoming record. It would certainly be an interesting evolution from their humble beginnings, through the fantastic ‘Rites of Inverse Incarnation’ and ‘Historia Nocturna’ into unexplored territories. That, however, only time will tell. For now, if you were lucky to pick up this tape, this is a simply excellent release to tide us over for the time being. And if you didn’t manage to pick up the tape, at least there’s Bandcamp to temporarily satisfy the hunger for more Fides Inversa material.

VM-UNDERGROUND

Extreme Metal Fanzine est. 2012

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Fides Inversa – Pillars [EP]

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