Famine

S/T

Worthless Endeavors 2011

This beautiful and cryptic LP represents the repressing of the 2007 album from American black metal isolationists, Famine.  This one man project is nebulous and hostile.  Each song is coated with noisy obfuscation which blurs the overall notes with intentional obscurity.  The album opener, Adventus, brings to mind the cruel middle ground between Destroyer era Gorgoroth and the blasphemous intensity of early Beherit.  The whispered and ghastly vocals summon comparisons to Holocausto's early style.  The subtle use of violin further imbues the song with unsettling qualities.  Blasting drums and frenzied guitars open Praise the Witch and the song continues to disorient through its careful utilization of shadowed noise.  Up next is the short but doomy Enter The Temple.  The plodding pacing and lethargic riffs drag like a slow motion cat 'o nine tales across tender flesh.  The guitar lead wails like a mournful banshee as the song draws to it close.  The circular, intense riffs that usher in Oathless Sovereign are dizzying and the use of violin further serves to unbalance the listener.  There are several instrumental pieces on the album but the once that proves to be the most demented with its dramatic violin and maniacal strings is Liber Porta Lvcis.  A truly chilling piece of music that conjures images of tortured ballerinas frolicking while demonic whales shift in the outer darkness.  Famine creates an album that causes the listener to become unhinged through its use of fuzzy, merciless riffing and abyssic clouds of white noise which create an aura of unsettling fear.  This is a piece of true American black metal obscurity.  An album which is permeated by darkness and evil atmosphere.