What is it about Black Metal album art that depicts lone women in rural locations that are usually indicative of quality music? For example Burzum’s ‘Filosofem’, Kaevum with ‘Kultur’.
When scouring through our zine’s promo list recently, I came across this particular second studio album from Rio de Janeiro’s Sturmvorhut. The painting used as cover art depicts a possibly Victorian / Belle Epoque era woman gathering flowers in an empty field next to some woodland, which summoned my curiosity.
All instruments performed on this solo project have been handled by Mr Impaler Vlad Necro-Holocausto Sodomizer. A name which reads as if the artist had thrown all of their second-wave Black Metal records into a Nutribullet. In terms of general aesthetics, this album, which is entitled ‘Magna Caedes Agni’ falls into the Pagan-Folk tinged leanings of those aforementioned albums in the prior paragraph.
Opening to an initial instrumental track, which features some spacious acoustic guitar strumming that gradually becomes absorbed within a growing reverb drone. The first helping of Black Metal instrumentation arrives by way of track two ‘The Great Slaughter of Christ’, the instrumentation has a mildly symphonic approach with some harmonised guitar leads and some quiet synth keys. The entire track is also wrapped in a strange, warbling modulation effect that seems to obscure the performance somewhat. Track three ‘The Golden Walls of Walhall’ features some shimmery lead work that feels very ‘Filosofem’ in spirit, yet again the song is covered underneath the modulation sounds and by this point it starts to become quite distracting, rather than complementary. Deeper into the track list, things begin slower on ‘A Message to the Past’ where clean guitars signal an introspective motif and the surrounding instrumentation builds toward a complementary pattern. The latter portion of the track picks up in pacing slightly with some depressive vocal modulations that pan across the mix. ‘Those Who Saw The Lightning’ is one of the most wide-scale and grandiose cuts on the record, the guitars drive the song through some exciting tempo shifts and the keys offer some dramatic bursts in the opening moments.
I will add that the percussion (which does sound programmed) conducts its role for the most part but really adds little to the experience of the album besides tempo related bedrock. I appreciate the quality on offer here from a young Brazilian artist who, at this time of writing, has a somewhat minuscule following. It’s always nice to discover a release that I enjoy covering from the truest underground depths, and I recommend all who read this to at least give this record an introductory listen.
I do find that the heavy use of modulation effects on this release seems to smother and obscure the tracks to a fault, but the general instrumentation is well performed and makes for a pleasant experience. For fans of Drudkh and Burzum.
