Blasphemous – Bearer of the Darkest Plagues (2010)

Sometimes we wonder if Infernus really listens to whatever he puts out/sells on his Forces of Satan records label. Blasphemous “Bearer of the Darkest Plagues” is released by Baars Records, but Forces of Satan has it for digital download and we are not impressed.

With a very low-fi cassette-demo sounding production, Blasphemous second full-length has minor flaws that greatly bring down the quality of this album. The band’s style of Blackened Death Metal is very retro sounding but still holds it’s own, until you hear the drumming going from slow sections into the blasting sections. It seems that the drumming is playing in a slower gear than the rest of the music.

We also have a big issue when it comes to creating solid songs. The album has nice riffs, some blistering solos, but the overall compositions of the songs is very sub-par. There are some “Transylvanian Hunger” moments here and there, but they are quickly drowned by the mindless receptiveness of the band’s music (i.e “Drift Into the Depths of Suicide”).

On the good side, we have some nice powerful riffing and some interesting tempo changes (killed by sub-par drumming). Some of the ideas presented on “Bearer of the Darkest Plagues” are solid and could have been developed better. We think that most fans of the old-school raw Blackened DM releases will surely enjoy the sound that the production of this album has, but if they are picky about the musical composition they will be slightly disappointed by this release.

Lastly, the vocals have a nice ring to it and if they had some more emotions and a bit of diversity this album would have gotten a few extra points from us. The overall lack of diversity and creativity within the songs kills the album for us. Like we said, there are some nice riffs and ideas in almost every song, but the band does not capitalize on them and just repeats them over and over.

If you are looking for a low-fi raw sounding Blackened DM album give Blasphemous a chance since they might get good in the future. And if you don’t mind mind-numbing repetition then this release has something for you.

Release: March 9th, 2010

Country: USA