Zarathustra

In Hora Mortis

Agonia 2006

Almost from the first seconds after the intro, Zarathustra burst forth with Intense black metal that falls squarely between the Dissection-ish Swedish scene and the disharmonic frostiness of the Norwegian scene.  In Hora Mortis captured me as soon as the notes left my speakers and refused to relinquish their stranglehold on my ears.  Souls Ejaculation combines blasting drums with deep echoing melodic riffs and ghostly haunting vocals.  All the songs on In Hora Mortis are fairly lengthy but continue to maintain my interest throughout their entirety through skilled songwriting and deft use of tempo and riff changes.  My favorite song has to be Salvation from Being.  I just love the frozen melodies they use and with which incorporate blasting intensity plus they insert all these little extra nuances like guitar squeals and some interesting drum fills and cymbal crashes, etc.  The songwriting is solid and consistent from the beginning straight through to the end of Towards Perdition where they even include a bit of pomposity with boisterous riffs and clean vocals.  I feel that Zarathustra differ from most of their fellow countrymen in that they have not entrenched themselves with a really obscure sound a la Katharsis and Ruins of Beverast but have instead put a really sharp and full production sound on their album.  With that said they are still an underground entity with all the integrity and mystical atmosphere one would expect from that scene.  Hurricane's vocals are stone hard and speak of a granite textured incantation.  I must also note that the cover art for their album is quite an impressive painting of some demonic warrior rising sword in Hand, from a sea of Death and mysticism.  Zarathustra will appeal to all UGBM fans out there who like their hatred as intense as midnight in a dense forest of wilted trees swaying in a hurricane force gale.   In Hora Mortis hooked me immediately and it will ensnare you too.