BAHIMIRON
To say that this is ugly would be a criminal understatement. Black, bleak, and rabid, ‘Rebel Hymns of Left Handed Terror’ is Bahimiron’s third full-length collection of no-bullshit, all-out Satanism, salvo upon salvo of bestial nightmares of absolute extinction and the unending vacancy of the void. A happy bunch they are not. Across all of the tracks, there is much diversity. Instead of nine tracks of interminable trem-picked riffs and scowling-whilst-prowling-in-the-darkness vocals, Bahimiron’s tablet of terrible toys is a vast array of insidious approaches from slow, bass-thudding dragged dirges to atmospheric horror to gallopingly grim riffs. With tracks ranging from two to nine minutes, Bahimiron take their time to paint all kinds of dismal ugliness upon the canvas. For instance, the nine-minute ‘Bestial Raids of Antichrist Darkness’ is flooded with maniacal lead work that scars its perversity into the track to augment the barren soundscape. And the torment sinks further into doomy passages that are contrasted with ultra-fast black metal rages and expansive and disconsolate atmospheres. That their palette is so diverse makes for an album with little repetition and rich in bleak creativity and is very much to their credit.
Though the tracks have a distinct sound all of their own, the compositions don’t always work, largely due to riffs being overused and played seemingly unendingly to make the extended tracks too long and much less effective than perhaps intended. The production doesn’t help either. Swamped in “kvlt” low-fi production values means the drums exist as tinny cymbals crashing away from somewhere in the middle distance, with the skins almost disappearing, their presence being “felt” in some sort of “I know they’re there, somewhere” way. The bass disappears completely for much of the record, emerging here and there with all the frailty of a wet fart, and the guitars must have been recorded with either a toy microphone or an ancient cassette recorder on the blink. The result is that the lengthy tracks, clearly painstakingly drenched in detail, are lost to themselves and this becomes ugly to the point of evasion. Criminal, but still great.
Though the tracks have a distinct sound all of their own, the compositions don’t always work, largely due to riffs being overused and played seemingly unendingly to make the extended tracks too long and much less effective than perhaps intended. The production doesn’t help either. Swamped in “kvlt” low-fi production values means the drums exist as tinny cymbals crashing away from somewhere in the middle distance, with the skins almost disappearing, their presence being “felt” in some sort of “I know they’re there, somewhere” way. The bass disappears completely for much of the record, emerging here and there with all the frailty of a wet fart, and the guitars must have been recorded with either a toy microphone or an ancient cassette recorder on the blink. The result is that the lengthy tracks, clearly painstakingly drenched in detail, are lost to themselves and this becomes ugly to the point of evasion. Criminal, but still great.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Moribund Records
Album
REBEL HYMNS OF LEFT HANDED TERROR
Review by Jason Guest
RUNNING TIME:
45:00
RELEASE DATE:
25th Oct 2011
TRACK LISTING
1) Anointed in Serpents Blood
2) Goathorned Messiah of the 7 Gates
3) Their Blood Shall Fill My Chalice
4) Bestial Raids of Antichrist Darkness
5) Wielder of Demon Blades
6) Throes of Oblivion
7) The Abattoir Inferno
8) Rebel Hymns
9) The Deathly Divinity
2) Goathorned Messiah of the 7 Gates
3) Their Blood Shall Fill My Chalice
4) Bestial Raids of Antichrist Darkness
5) Wielder of Demon Blades
6) Throes of Oblivion
7) The Abattoir Inferno
8) Rebel Hymns
9) The Deathly Divinity
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
USA
"That their palette is so diverse makes for an album with little repetition and rich in bleak creativity..."
