ALBUM REVIEW: Black Royal Spiritism – I – O Sino da Igreja – RUÏM
In the long history of black metal, Blasphemer is perhaps one of the best and most underrated guitarists and songwriters the genre has ever known. Rising to prominence in the mid-90s after joining MAYHEM, filling the shoes of the bands original guitarist and driving force Euronymous, Blasphemer‘s aggressive and intricate contributions to albums like Grand Declaration Of War and Chimera helped the legendary Norwegian band to develop a broader musical legacy beyond Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, and cemented their new guitarist as one of the most creative musicians within the genre. Now, over fifteen years since his time with the band has ended, Blasphemer is back with RUÏM, a band that began life after he rediscovered a tape containing unreleased ideas he had composed in the late 90s for MAYHEM.
The band’s first album, Black Royal Spiritism- I.O Sino da Igreja features a lot of similarities with his era of the band, but also possesses some impressive, subtle elements that once again reassert BLASHEMER’s standing as one of black metal’s most imaginative composers.
Blood.Sacrifice.Enthronement is a lengthy, ambitious piece of music that quickly shifts its slow, dramatic opening motif to incredibly intricate and blistering black metal, with rabid guitars, acerbic vocals and energetic drum performances all setting a high bar for the musicianship early on. It’s a belligerent offering that rarely reduces its pace or intensity, and other than a few experimental sections and the sonorous chants and sinister whispering vocals, this is all out aggression with a few darker, avant-garde flourishes, making for an immersive start to proceedings.
The Triumph (Of Night & Fire) retains the eerie, atmospheric guitar style that featured in the last track and pairs it with unflinchingly frenetic Black Metal, that has lots of muscular, chaotic rhythms peppered throughout, with the machine gun precision of the drums and guitars often developing an extremely tight and angular song. The Black House couples jarring guitars and thunderous percussion with haunting, tortured vocals, leaning into the distinctively ethereal elements of Blasphemer‘s style of guitar playing, with disjointed riffs, doom-laden interludes and sudden tempo changes crafting an unpredictable sound that is firmly rooted within classic black metal. Black Royal Spiritism is another longer form affair, utilises the length of the track to explore am eclectic sound, initially beginning at a relative crawl, with epic, melody-tinged leads interwoven with discordant moments, and abruptly drawing things back when it appears that it’s gathering momentum, before finally unleashing an outright aural assault as the music hits its climactic moments, turning this into a highly engrossing number.
Evig Dissonans launches headlong into a visceral slab of caustic black metal with noxious vocal deliveries, razor sharp, stringent guitars and punishing drumming, making room fantastic, bleakly grandiose passages, with the end result being both bestial and bombastic in equal measure. Fall Of Seraphs, a fairly faithful rendition of what is arguably one of the best MAYHEM tracks from Blasphemer‘s time with the band, and featuring guest vocals from ABSU vocalist Proscriptor McGovern, captures the muscular, ferocious tone of the original, whilst allowing for some subtle changes that work very well, notably making intricate sections more resonant, embracing the atmosphere-drenched undercurrent, shining new light on the finer details of an undeniably classic.
Ao Rio makes full use of reverb-heavy guitar sound to accentuate the progressive guitar work, completely shifting the style and tone of the music away from traditional black metal, providing ample space for the underlying experimental edge of this albums sound to take centre stage. Reserved vocals and electronic flourishes also make this song quite unique, standing as a stark contrast to the track that follows it, O Sino da Igreja. This incredibly catchy and monstrous piece of music, with dizzying guitars, focused drumming and grating vocals make for a whirlwind of exceptionally harsh black metal that is perhaps the albums most vitriolic effort, whilst still possessing some great, memorable riffs, concluding the album in an extremely strong fashion.
Black Royal Spiritism is proof, if the man’s work with MAYHEM, AURA NOIR and VLTIMAS wasn’t already enough, that Blasphemer is one of the most talented and imaginative songwriters within black metal. It’s interesting music that has such a familiar feel can also sound so distinct. There is, understandably, a lot of similarities between the music that features here and the sort of unhinged intensity that made up much of Grand Declaration of War and Chimera, considering that a lot of it began life in the same period, but this album also has a great, ethereal quality to its mix, along with some excellent, discordant guitar flourishes, that helps to set it apart from many other current black metal acts. Hopefully Black Royal Spiritism won’t be a stand alone record from RUÏM, because this is a near flawless and exceptionally tight sounding slab of black metal from start to finish, and it would be great to hear even more music in this vein.
Rating: 9/10
Black Royal Spiritism – I – O Sino da Igreja is out now via Peaceville Records.
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