Thralldom "Beast Eye Opened to the Sky" CD
[Bestial Onslaught]
Nice. Here's some raw and filthy black that's basically just the way I like it. The recording is totally rugged and dirty, but in a way that's well handled and listenable. There's a lot of messy distortion hanging over the instruments, and there's definitely a distant ring to the mix, but you can hear everything that's going on, and the furious vocal screams are fucking awesome. I might like to hear a slightly different guitar tone, but I can live with this. Musically it's generally fast chord progressions with a few slower breaks, but there's a lot of atmosphere involved (part of which comes from the recording, the rest of which is the actual attitude and delivery). The cool thing is that it doesn't really sound that much like anything else. There are occasional caustic textures and chords used, as well as some interesting lead lines of sorts, but they almost have more of a really nasty punk thing going on than anything (think Black Flag but more sinister). Sure, there's a classic Norwegian sort of thing going on at times, but there are always uniquely dissonant textures involved that really give this its own approach (most notably in "Hypaethral"). "De Mysterio Mali" is more of a rugged experimental noise track of sorts, complete with some thick, rumbling distortion and twisted ambient textures along with some sparse vocal treatments. Not bad. The layout kicks ass here. Everything is really bleak and minimal, with clean text, subtle imagery, etc. There's no text on the front cover, which looks spectacular, and everything else is very consistent and clean. I love it. It definitely stands out and catches the eye. The lyrics are also infinitely more creative than most anything else of this nature: "Razor tongue - lawless and arrogant, Vespertine flames - burn tradition burn, Inner voices - project livid self, Explosive electric autonomajesty, Earn your death and crawl out of the grave, When the eyes close I am a universe of chaos, When the eyes open I curse the god of silence, Slicing morality off the face of the sphere." I really like this. Everything about both the audio and visual aesthetics of the release is interesting, and this is certainly a band to watch. (7/10)
Running time - 30:31, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Hypaethral, Dead Aeon of the Slain Gods, De Mysterio Mali]
Bestial Onslaught Productions - http://www.bestialonslaught.com

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