‘The Ash Chalice’ is the second full-length of the, unknown to me, Polish Black Metal band Primitiae Dormientium, which is released a mere 7 months after ‘The Flame Vessel’ album from April 2025.
Primitiae Dormientium is a band, created as a death cult fascination project in late 2024 by K. (vocals, guitars) and later joined by M. (drums) in 2025.
Needless to say Primitiae Dormientium play a form of dark, sinister and utterly morbid Black Metal, centered around this death cult fascination. Nothing new you might think, but Primitiae Dormientium do it with conviction and elegance. ‘The Ash Chalice’ stands for pure hatred, death worship. It’s vile, it’s ugly but it sounds so damn good!
When listening to ‘The Ash Chalice’, the death and decay fascination on this album is heavily fueled by World War 2 and the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the Polish concentration camps. Just listen to tracks such as ‘Ravensbrück’, ‘The Ash Chalice’, ‘The Black Hunters’, or ‘Waves Of Violence’.
Menacing doomish and hypnotizing tremolo picked riffs, a punishing rhythm section with savage double bass drums and the feral, the raw voice of K. create a torrid, hellish and thick atmosphere full of sulphuric fumes, brimstone and smouldering fires.
The fascination for death, decay and destruction oozes from the songs, creating a suffocating and violent album that encompasses the very essence of Black Metal.
Rhythms vary from menacing slow to blast beaten frenzy; the metallic riffing is harsh and unforgiving and everything goes in the crucible to be cast as Metal Of Death.
Influences: influences range from, say, Kônigsreichssaal, to Sargeist, Tsjuder, Deathspell Omega, Enthroned and several other high quality Black Metal bands.
The last track, a full-speed blaster, even has a Polish title, ‘Zmierzch Ludzkości’ and means something as ‘the demise of mankind’, which fits the entire picture nicely.
In every dense track there’s so much going on. There’s drama and morbidity, creepy sound samples that create the right mood and undiluted Black Metal which makes this album an instant classic in my opinion. As far as I’m concerned Primitiae Dormientium have my full approval for their death cult fascination and hopefully it will lead to even more skullcrushing releases.
The physical copies are limited to 300 so check your dealers such as Putrid Cult and other entrepreneurs for these goodies and make sure you have a copy of ‘The Ash Chalice’.
