ALBUM REVIEW: Purity Of Corruption – Feral Lord
FERAL LORD are easily one of the more intense acts to come out of the US’ vibrant black metal underground. The Los Angeles-based duo have managed to develop a reputation for exceptionally visceral and ferocious black metal, with their debut EP, last years Victorious Hellfire, showcasing their grating and caustic take on the genre extremely well. Their first full length, Purity Of Corruption is, if anything, even more rabid than the EP that preceded it, and shows how a band can create music that is simultaneously utterly monstrous and captivating, taking the genre to its dark outer reaches whilst still possessing some great, catchy moments.
Terrestrial Obstructions sets a bleak tone for the rest of the record, with authoritative drums backing up jarring guitars and feral shrieks, creating a fierce sound immediately. The coarse production only serves to add an acerbic edge to the already visceral music on offer, making for an unnerving and intense start to the album. Undead Warlord provides a few mid-tempo motifs to break up the chaotic bent of the music, but for the most part picks up where the previous track left off. The music is unhinged and savage on all fronts, in particular the vocals and guitars, but it’s also engrossing in spite of its off kilter approach.
The Purity Of Corruption sees the sound alter just a little. In amongst the caustic moments, there are a few sections that make great use of a more measured style and a cleaner tone, adding a few fleeting atmospherics into the mix that do a good job of breaking up the aural assault that has dominated the album up to this point. Failed Rebirths has a much sharper sound, built around blistering melodies as opposed to dissonant chords, giving this record’s viciousness a whole new dimension. The cacophonous blasts that punctuate this track help to make this song even more unpredictable than the ones that preceded it, and it proves to be one of the album’s harsher offerings so far.
Chasm Of Horror is another track that showcases just how sinister and dark this band can sound when they adopt a slower pace, with doom-laden riffs, steady drum hooks and acidic vocal deliveries all making for a haunting and immersive sound. The speed of the song rarely raises above mid-tempo until later on, but it proves be one of the more enduring songs on here, standing out from the pack for all the right reasons. Sinister Exultation continues in the same manner, utilising huge chords and discordant flourishes to grab the listener’s attention straight away, before launching into an unrelenting, dizzying blend of bellicose guitars, frenetic drums and arid, howling vocals, interspersed with a few epic and decidedly primal passages that make it thoroughly captivating throughout.
In The Realm Of The Feral Lord is defined by more polished distortion from the guitars, and a sound that gradually builds as the song progresses from its hypnotic and powerful opening moments to more nauseating and bestial territory as it reaches its climax. It’s a great piece of music that expertly brings together all the elements that have worked so well across the album, from the frenzied intensity, to the brooding dirges, to the cleaner, more ethereal motifs, capping this album off in dramatic and eclectic fashion.
There’s a lot to love about this record, especially for fans of black metal’s more extreme and feral side. The vast majority of this album has some incredibly aggressive and cacophonous sounding musicianship, oftentimes chaotic and unhinged in a way more akin to grindcore than black metal, but it also has some well placed, slower and more deliberate moments that illustrate the band’s more atmospheric side perfectly. On all fronts, from the song-writing itself to the production, this is a huge improvement on the foundations laid on Victorious Hellfire, a record that is great in its own regard. With music this savage, FERAL LORD are certain to turn more than a few heads with Purity Of Corruption, setting themselves a new, lofty benchmark in the process.
Rating: 8/10
Purity Of Corruption is out now via Vargheist Records.
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