Info
- Band(s): Negative Plane
- Label(s): Captors of Sin, Invictus Productions, The Ajna Offensive
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, Cassette, CD
- Release Year: 2022
- Review Date: June 12, 2025
- Author(s): Brione McGuinness
Not many bands can keep the attention or dedication of an audience while also having such little output. Obviously, we have our exceptions but one of those that come to mind immediately would have to be the mighty Negative Plane. With only three albums under their belts over a twenty-four-year period, you would think they would have lost their way among time, becoming faceless and soon forgotten, yet as I have said that is not the case. ‘The Pact’ proves just that. This masterful album is a haunting renaissance painting come to life, telling the tale of what I believe to be an architect’s slow descent into the madness that is his league with the Devil himself. Released through the notorious Invictus Productions, this album quickly became a favourite of mine, listen and you will find out why.
Reaching ever so slightly under an hour, this album has a lot to unpack, and since I am a vinyl maniac myself, I can best describe this record while referencing the vinyl itself. The first two songs ‘A Work to Stand a Thousand Years’ and ‘Poison and The Crucifix’ tell the beginning of this architect’s perilous tale. These songs perfectly introduce us to the new Negative Plane while also holding the glory and uniqueness of the songwriting displayed on their previous albums. The unique riffing is a theme that has always held strong throughout the output of Negative Plane and remains strong through ‘Three Turns to the West’. Yet this beginning half of the story is eerily concluded by ‘The Wailing of the Immured’, an instrumental cello piece that readies us for the fall of our beloved architect.
‘Even the Devil Goes into the Church’ and ‘The Other Door’ carry us further through this album. Stylistically they don’t stand awfully far from the previously mentioned songs, yet they still hold vital to the overall feel of the album. The album concludes with ‘And so It Came to Pass’, its eerie clean intro sets the final tone of doom that has been beset upon the architect. This haunting melody is then immediately followed by the unsettling sound that we come to recognise throughout the record. It can be best described as the musical equivalent of feeling as though you are descending into a silent tomb, yet you know something unseen watches you while you travel onwards.
To conclude, this is an unmissable album. A release that you could continue to revisit while you wait patiently for the next mystical output of Negative Plane, knowing that whatever they may conjure while lurking silently in their crypt will guarantee to bring you on yet another journey to a place no man may speak of sanely. If you relish in the work of bands such as Hasturian Vigil, Spite and Vircolac, I feel this album will fill your void, if it has not landed in your hands already. No man should escape the wrath of Negative Plane, for once you set your eyes upon their glory, you can never turn away!
Captors of Sin
- Country: Chile
- Style: Death Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal
- Links: Homepage
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Invictus Productions
- Country: Ireland
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
