ALBUM REVIEW: Satanic Inversion Of… – Avmakt
Hailing from Tårnåsen, just a short distance from Koltbotn, AVMAKT don’t just share the same geographical space as the embryonic days of Norwegian black metal. In a scene, both within Norway itself but also internationally, where new black metal acts resort to overused musical tropes and an opaque production value to emulate some of the genre’s earliest proponents, this duo feel, both sonically and in terms of their songwriting, to be one of the few modern acts that have managed to capture a more genuine take on 90s black metal, with their debut demo in 2021 standing out from many other demos of a similar ilk with its emphasis on a grating mix, paired with forceful and muscular hooks that are clearly influenced by the first few DARKTHRONE records, without being a tired re-treading of the same old ground. The band’s first album, Satanic Inversion Of… continues in a similar vein, exploring this brilliant brand of black metal in greater depth, and showcasing how good second wave black metal can be when approached in an authentic, rather than contrived, way.
Ordinance provides a dark, doom-laden start to the record, with a hypnotic guitar motif and dense, percussive drums creating a slower, bleaker sound, and gradually shifting towards a weightier black metal format as it progresses and picks up its pace. The sharp, grating vocals and muscular, rhythmic hooks are wrapped in an abrasive production, feeling genuinely like something that’s authentically from that period rather than affecting to be from it. Poison Reveal, with its tight, galloping drums and jarring, grim sound, continues in a similar vein, but opts for a faster tempo and livelier musicianship to grab the listener’s attention and make this all the more compelling, with a few chaotic flourishes added as the song reaches its second half to inject some harsher variety to proceedings.
Sharpening Blades Of Cynicism reverts to the crawling, groove-laden sound that was present on the album’s opener, and utilises the ponderous, minimalistic approach to create something that sounds far more expansive than the preceding two tracks, allowing the vocals to provide a significant share of hooks as they carve through the swampy sound like a rusty blade and lend an acerbic quality to this offering. This is very much a slow-burning track, slowly altering into a fiercer and more abrasive song as it gains momentum, throwing in discordant flourishes and jarring feedback that only add to the unpolished and primitive sound that is developed by the production, using not only the music itself but its mix to enhance the song.
Towing Oblivion, another speed-driven, caustic effort, bursts out of the speakers and rarely relents on the overarching intensity, with thrashing guitars, frenetic drums and visceral, demented vocals resulting in a sound that is thoroughly rabid, with only a few hard rock touches added to detract from the domineering aggression that drives this piece of music forward. Charred moves forward at a funeral dirge, even by the standards of this album’s slower offerings, and is built around a huge, rumbling drum sound and full, powerful guitar chords, with a few spartan, melancholic licks thrown in for added effect, before suddenly lurching into a much more cacophonous passage that stands in stark contrast with the crawling pace it began on, showcasing a ravenous and dissonant side of the band in the process.
Doubt And The Void, another song that possesses a slow and sinister sound, at least initially, does a great job of blending together the slower, doom metal-inflected moments and the aggressive elements with greater ease, with the ponderous opening sections feeling harsher than earlier on the record, and the eventual bursts of brutality that make up the latter half of this track being made even more punishing as they are performed with a thicker tone that really beefs up these belligerent and bellicose components, bringing this album to a conclusion on another of its most sprawling and eclectic efforts.
It would be very easy to categorise Satanic Inversion Of… as just another Norwegian black metal album that pays homage to the scene’s 90s heyday, but to do so would not only be lazy, but also misleading. Where a lot of modern black metal records that are aping the classic second wave Norwegian sound are mere pale imitations that use raw production to mask weak musicianship, this feels genuinely authentic, with some of these songs feeling like something that was left on the cutting room floor during the recording for an album like A Blaze In The Northern Sky or Under A Funeral Moon. It’s an album that’s a far truer representation of what old school black metal is meant to sound like, with the coarse production feeling more of a necessity to the creative aims rather than a played out stylistic choice. If AVMAKT keep producing records in this vein, they could be one of the few modern acts that can sit alongside some of the earliest forerunners of the genre and not feel like pretenders trying to snatch the metaphorical baton from their idols, but rather their peers and logical successors.
Rating: 9/10
Satanic Inversion Of… is out now via Peaceville Records.
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