The Secret

Solve Et Coagula

Southern Lord 2010

Italian crusters The Secret, return with an album that is light years ahead of their previous effort.  Solve Et Coagula combines some droning doom, black metal and nihilistic crust to an sinister and apocalyptic effect.  Things get underway as the monolithic and singular notes of Cross Builder obliterate all life under their slow cyclopean weight, like a slow motion Morne.  And then the floodgates open, as devastating speed and fury are unleashed on Death Alive.  Monstrous blast beats and ashen riffs steamroll the wounded and dying flat.  This nonstop stream of frantic pacing and demonic anger proceed through the next few tracks though some atmospheric riffs briefly flash into existence at the end of Where It Ends.  Doom-laden and morbid riffs break the surface and sound like a lumbering automaton for the second half of Weathermen.  Droning noise gives way to meaty riffs on Eve of The Last Day.  Cascading waves of shredding guitars sear flesh while bones are shattered by the constant pummeling of the drums.  The blasting pace on most of the songs borders on grind but the mood is infinitely more evil and subterranean.  This however is not the case with Bell of Urgency, whose spaced-out droning doom riffs hypnotize with their chilling singularity.  And the rasping vocals summon visions of lunar demons calling down from the night sky.  1968 explodes like missile strike with rapid bursts of drumming cacophony.  The track evolves into varied textures that are alternately vast and muscular.  The Secret annihilated all expectations I had with their third full-length effort.  I was floored by the unrelenting aggression and occult malevolence tinged with bleak doom on the Solve Et Coagula.