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| #FOR FANS OF: Post Metal/Sludge, Yob, Neurosis |
An album filthier than the nether regions of a three dollar lady of the evening, hard at work over Fleet Week in Norfolk, Virginia, Bible Black Tyrant brings a brash and densely infectious noise akin to the sludge seeping from twixt the illicit worker's legs that incubates in its fetid fecundity and ravages a population with plague and progeny alike. In contrast to the namesake of the state in which her underground business operates, her tang is corrupted by the abuse and unrestrained voracity of the lowly yet it is impressive in its epidermal malleability and her constitution's resistance to its own incubation of potential epidemic.
Featuring fluid flows of 'Celestial' sludge throughout the album, especially noticeable when the guitar grain melts and eventually isolates the drums, similar to a breakdown in “Glisten”, this album incubates its own deleterious concoction that remorselessly punishes a listener and leaves him curious as to what more substance may issue from such seemingly interminable captivity. However, Bible Black Tyrant refrains from indulging the bounce and hardcore leanings of Isis in favor of drawing out its oppressive march. The closest moment to a hyper speedy passage is in the disorienting first moments of the title track where the feedback and resonance of a guitar nearly sounds like a lo-fi blast beat which the band then admonishes the listener for entertaining such a notion by scraping strings and slamming the squeaking gate of freedom to draw him back into this dreary penitentiary. In stark opposition to the general flow of a the average album, this title track is merely a minimalist ambient piece separating two segments of creeping and undulating terror as the mechanism of control relishes its reign and resists revolution throughout this audial arc.
Much of 'Regret Beyond Death' is large, lumbering, and jerky with very few moments that combine such spastic contortions and relentless stomping in order to naturally move and flow. The oppressive atmosphere, a constant weight of grain upon one's ears that overcomes conscience and sense of self alike, seems to have no rhyme or reason except to torture and control the listener's thoughts, creating suffocating and delirious expectations as though the trials of a gulag meant not to mine prosperity for a society but to reduce the reproduction of its most wretched refuse. However, when such a combination of rhythm and riff does finally breach these prison walls, what eventually glides through the atmosphere is a greatly welcome moment that flows like fresh water after a drought. The album is unnerving until finally falling into a comfortable groove in “Wilderness of Steel and Stone” as a busy Sabbath style guitar followed by slow and hard cymbal pounding and a chanting chorus of 'the king of the slaves' takes over. Finally a flowing guitar riff on which to build rather than simply oppressing without any present design clears the air and a fresh feeling of freedom inspires an eruption of revolution, as though a mortal coil sheds like snake skin and rapture is achieved in the breaking of chains.
For a band named after a line in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, a short story by Washington Irving featuring the ever-menacing Headless Horseman, there is an apparent horror throughout 'Regret Beyond Death' that seems to usher in a revolt against its confinement after “New Verse Inferno”, sweeping away its own oppressors. Recorded in different locations in the northwest and West Coast, the ensemble comes together well with its abrasive guitar layering, shouted vocals, and bassy percussion that brings grainy cycling in “A Terror to the Adversary”, cracking string whips in “The Irony”, and an almost psychedelic crunch in “The Standard”. A brash swinging in “Instead Of” will pick up its rhythm in order to better bash its own head into pavement while the grip of the hostile treble monopolizes the mix with its relentless reverberations.
Like the climbing guitar tones in “A Terror to the Adversary”, reeking of filth in spite of its undertone of grungy, almost reverential cries to become an anthem, 'Regret Beyond Death' yearns to become something better, but the crushing pain of existence and the weight of tyranny is impossible to truly overcome. The hints of a story arc help the album progress, but the endless deprivation throughout the album make for a release marred by its own misery. It will be interesting to see if Bible Black Tyrant may be able to escape its Hell and subjugate its oppressors, relishing its own revenge after enduring such a ravenous reign, but for now the band seems to be nurturing an uprising that quickly may be quashed. (Five_Nails)
Featuring fluid flows of 'Celestial' sludge throughout the album, especially noticeable when the guitar grain melts and eventually isolates the drums, similar to a breakdown in “Glisten”, this album incubates its own deleterious concoction that remorselessly punishes a listener and leaves him curious as to what more substance may issue from such seemingly interminable captivity. However, Bible Black Tyrant refrains from indulging the bounce and hardcore leanings of Isis in favor of drawing out its oppressive march. The closest moment to a hyper speedy passage is in the disorienting first moments of the title track where the feedback and resonance of a guitar nearly sounds like a lo-fi blast beat which the band then admonishes the listener for entertaining such a notion by scraping strings and slamming the squeaking gate of freedom to draw him back into this dreary penitentiary. In stark opposition to the general flow of a the average album, this title track is merely a minimalist ambient piece separating two segments of creeping and undulating terror as the mechanism of control relishes its reign and resists revolution throughout this audial arc.
Much of 'Regret Beyond Death' is large, lumbering, and jerky with very few moments that combine such spastic contortions and relentless stomping in order to naturally move and flow. The oppressive atmosphere, a constant weight of grain upon one's ears that overcomes conscience and sense of self alike, seems to have no rhyme or reason except to torture and control the listener's thoughts, creating suffocating and delirious expectations as though the trials of a gulag meant not to mine prosperity for a society but to reduce the reproduction of its most wretched refuse. However, when such a combination of rhythm and riff does finally breach these prison walls, what eventually glides through the atmosphere is a greatly welcome moment that flows like fresh water after a drought. The album is unnerving until finally falling into a comfortable groove in “Wilderness of Steel and Stone” as a busy Sabbath style guitar followed by slow and hard cymbal pounding and a chanting chorus of 'the king of the slaves' takes over. Finally a flowing guitar riff on which to build rather than simply oppressing without any present design clears the air and a fresh feeling of freedom inspires an eruption of revolution, as though a mortal coil sheds like snake skin and rapture is achieved in the breaking of chains.
For a band named after a line in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, a short story by Washington Irving featuring the ever-menacing Headless Horseman, there is an apparent horror throughout 'Regret Beyond Death' that seems to usher in a revolt against its confinement after “New Verse Inferno”, sweeping away its own oppressors. Recorded in different locations in the northwest and West Coast, the ensemble comes together well with its abrasive guitar layering, shouted vocals, and bassy percussion that brings grainy cycling in “A Terror to the Adversary”, cracking string whips in “The Irony”, and an almost psychedelic crunch in “The Standard”. A brash swinging in “Instead Of” will pick up its rhythm in order to better bash its own head into pavement while the grip of the hostile treble monopolizes the mix with its relentless reverberations.
Like the climbing guitar tones in “A Terror to the Adversary”, reeking of filth in spite of its undertone of grungy, almost reverential cries to become an anthem, 'Regret Beyond Death' yearns to become something better, but the crushing pain of existence and the weight of tyranny is impossible to truly overcome. The hints of a story arc help the album progress, but the endless deprivation throughout the album make for a release marred by its own misery. It will be interesting to see if Bible Black Tyrant may be able to escape its Hell and subjugate its oppressors, relishing its own revenge after enduring such a ravenous reign, but for now the band seems to be nurturing an uprising that quickly may be quashed. (Five_Nails)
(Argonauta Records - 2018)
Score: 65
https://bibleblacktyrant.bandcamp.com/releases
Score: 65
https://bibleblacktyrant.bandcamp.com/releases