Heresi

Psalm II Infusco Ignis

Hydra Head Records 2006

I think I have been bludgeoned to death this month with traditional, straight ahead black metal.  Luckily for me it has pretty much all been really strong efforts by all the bands concerned and the newest release by Sweden's one man blasphemer, Heresi is no exception.   This is Hydra Head's rerelease of Psalm II which was out originally on Sweden's Total Holocaust Records.  This mini album blisters along at a trance inducing pace of hyperspeed for most of the songs with some mild melodic riffing similar to Darkthrone's Transivlanian Hunger but on a little more subtle level than that album.  With that said, Heresi does introduce some interesting ideas to keep the songs from becoming too boring and monotonous.  I love the thrash break down in the opening track, Liotte.  A lot of the songs besiege the listener with alternating variations of hack saw sounding riffs that sever a person's sanity from his soul!  My favorite track, Dionyssosinitiationen creeps in with some eerie discordant guitar tones and then bounces along with fierce Black N' Roll rumblings that urge me to bang my head.  I am assuming that Skamfer(Of Ondskapt) needed an outlet for his more primitive musical urges.  Not only is his songwriting terror inducing but his vokillz echo in a deep and haunting quality that ensures you will have difficulty escaping the nightmare landscapes he paints with his lyrical paintbrushes.  One more thing I must say is that the cover art done by Wrest (Leviathan) for this release is Ungodly.  It's like a Cyclopean mesh of Lovecraftian flesh ready to consume your soul.  It is a perfect reflection of the music.  Heresi embodies arcane ideas and musical textures that are straightforward yet posses qualities of dark majesty and a true sense of horror.