Helgrind - Dark War Blood

Salvaging the dark atmosphere from the more primal forms of blackened death metal, Helgrind distill on their sophomore opus a wide lexicon of technique into their own style of thunderous black-death. Dark War Blood, while its atmosphere definitively evokes the lurking Phantom influence especially in its riff patterns, nevertheless synthesises influences from both Scandinavian black metal and the more morbid aspects of primitive death metal into a vision not of chaos but a deliberate, subversive and corrupting evil.

While the aforementioned Phantom influence must be noted, it is much less present than on the band's previous release, the cannibalistic Demon Rituals that by now has achieved a cult-like status in almost all underground war metal circles.

Rather than recycle the cavernous echoing doom of Ascension of Erebos as is so common in what passes for nowadays blackened death metal scenes, innovators Helgrind look back further into the deep and dark traditions of Burzum, Infester, Incantation and, yes, their own early material to produce what amounts to a complete overhaul of all extreme metal lexicon.

Baffling in the depth of complexity seemingly immanent to the process of mutating evil, the music of Helgrind fashions from basic parts and seemingly "simple" heuristics some of the most devious metal that matches the ferocity of its raw energy to a dark spirit that, should this band continue on its sinister path, might fully emerge in a culmination of the antithesis of peace in sound.

A massive evolution from the first Helgrind album, Dark War Blood rebirths the old school blackened death metal sound in its most putrescent form.

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