Black Witchery - Inferno of Sacred Destruction (2010)

Black Witchery - Inferno of Sacred Destruction

Label: Osmose Productions / Hells Headbangers, 2010

1.     Holocaustic Church Devastation     04:28
2.     Antichrist Order of Holy Death     02:42
3.     Apocalyptic Carnage     02:59
4.     Barbarism Domination     01:53
5.     Inferno of Sacred Destruction     03:58
6.     Kingdom Against Kingdom (Conqueror cover)
7.     Sepulchral Witchcraft     02:05
8.     Ascension of the Obscure Moon     04:00


There are good albums, there are great albums, there are fantastic albums, then there is BLACK WITCHERY.

Okay, to start with, this album is only 20 something minutes long. There was a 5 year break between the previous one and this one and, honestly, nothing changed at all since then. If anything, music became even more monotonous. No single new riff. Hell, there are almost no melodies here. It's still the same Black Death jackhammer fest as it was back then. The drumming is as monotonous as ever. The guitars are buzzing and the sound is very far from the (so popular today) Abyss or Necromorbus polishedness, so it's hard to distinguish separate notes from this mess. As I mentioned, it's only 20 minutes long, but even a minute of this is enough for every good citizen to turn this off and throw the CD into a garbage disposal unit. I imagine, christians catch serious nausea from this music, pregnant women give birth to stillborn babies, while children, that are already born, receive very late term abortions. The lyrics are simple and, in general, they retell the same old story in the same very words, as if the person, who wrote them, has a very limited vocabulary and doesn't plan to learn anything new any time soon. A traditional cover of Conqueror finishes the picture. An ambient song amidst the massacre briefly changes the pace, but not for long, so who cares. The cover has absolutely no new ideas to it whatsoever. Just a bunch of disgusting demon creatures and a burning church in a traditional Chris Moyen style. We all saw and heard it all a thousand of times already.

In short, it's Black Metal AS IT SHOULD BE. My absolutely favourite album of 2010 and an absolute MUST for those of you, who values real substance over worthless image wankery.

For exquisite perverts, the normal non-exclusive edition features a bonus DVD, so you could see this hell live on your TV/computer screens.

Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations (2011)

Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations

Label: The AJNA Offensive / Invictus Prod., 2011

1.     The Fall     02:25    
2.     Lamentations & Ashes     07:02    
3.     Angels of Veiled Bone     08:04    
4.     The Third Hour     01:49    
5.     The One and the Many     08:29    
6.     Charnel Spirit     01:13    
7.     All Souls     09:48    
8.     The Number of the Word     08:20    
9.     Stained Glass Reflections     02:47    
10.     Stained Glass Revelations     11:30


After their amazing 2006 debut, "Et In Saecula Saeculorum", Negative Plane disappeared from the scene for 5 whole years and now re-emerge with "Stained Glass Revelations", their second onslaught of adversarial magickal current.

Did they change their direction? Is the new attack just as raw, dark and hateful as the first one? The answer is both yes and no. The sound changed a lot, becoming more refined and, perhaps, soft. The aggression and chaos, previously prevalent, now take a more secondary role, while the atmosphere and the melodies are still present. "EISS" featured many signature Celtic Frost moments and those are mostly gone by now. BUT. The album's style can't be confused with any other band. The moment it starts you KNOW it's Negative Plane. While you continue the listening, the changes slowly creep in. Fewer fast riffs, more slow and melancholic moments, dark organ interludes...

Definitely, an album, whose quality can't be appreciated by a couple of quick listens, it is much more of a slow grower, than the immediately storming first one. What is undeniable, Negative Plane is a genuine gem among the, mostly, rubbish, that comes from the US nowadays, together with bands like Nightbringer and Bestia Arcana, spearheading the new front.

Featuring a lot of great artwork, the CD's booklet is a masterpiece on its own right. I do think, that some of the old fans might miss the chaos within the band's music, as I do so myself very much, but give it a listen. Open yourself to it. Accept it and it might creep under your skin like a surgical needle.