Iugulatus     

Satanic Pride
End Of Time Records 2012

Obscure and cult black metal descends upon the earth once again from the pagan vastlands of Poland.  A morbid aura permeates the riffs that issue forth from my speakers as the title-track opens the album.  Fat riffs with quick bursts of melodic speed shift towards a hammering passage of midtempo variances.  There is a cult-ish feel to the music, like a tighter version of early Hellenic black metal.  Bone hard vocals and upwards swings of guitar drive the later stages of the song.  Warped vocals and a brooding initial riff are washed away by a frenzy of speed and hatred on Chaos Invocation.  The guitars buzz as they stream across muted melodic phrases before dropping into more atmospheric midtempo segments.  Entrancing riffs with healthy doses of speed and muscular passages on Beware The Flame From Undun summon comparisons to Cemetery's debut album.  However these references are washed away as an atmospheric period of meandering guitars and a hint of synth dance like a woman caught in a trance, gentle, sultry swaying, but with a morbid intent.  Once the vocals begin I hear shades of old Samael between the eruptions of aggression.  A haunting melody overtakes the song before once again collapsing into a morass of guitar soloing and atmospheric midtempo riffs.  Although I am sure some will disagree, but for some reason the opening riff on Black Song Of Necromancy reminds me of Tiamat from their Astral Sleep period.  Of course once the violence and aggression kicks in, these references are submerged.  However this riff pattern continues to rise and fall as the song continues so that feeling is ever present in my mind.  Iugulatus' new album (I say "new" because this was just released in 2012 but was recorded in 2010) is a ritual of well composed blackened death that exhales the putrid air of the dark arts.  It has a morbid atmosphere without being too underproduced while still retaining enough of a rough edge to corrupt the souls of even the most devout of underground devotees.