Man Gremmes
Kan – On a Pulpit of Souls (2013)
Glorious
North Productions
Review by
Jude Felton
Back in the
day, tape trading was the best way to get ahold of new and exciting music;
stuff that wasn’t necessarily available in your local independent record store.
Now, while trading does still exist, and even a few records stores do survive,
it’s the evil internet that drives forward the discovery of new artists. Agree
or disagree, but it is a fact, and one of the best ways, I have found, is
through the gem that is Bandcamp. That is how I came to stumble upon this
snarling abomination of a tape.
Man Gremmes
Kan hail from Norway, and deliver a blistering black metal assault over the
course of 6 tunes. Alternating between Norwegian and English lyrics, it’s a collection
of songs that very rarely let up.
As with most
purchases through Bandcamp, along with the physical copy of your purchase you
generally also get the album, EP or single in digital format too. That is no
exception here either, so I have had the pleasure of being assaulted by On a Pulpit
of Souls in both formats. Both sound terrific, although there is no escaping
the raw beauty of delving into this music on tape. It’s dirty, messy and
caustic and is completely at odds with the digital mentality.
However,
digital does serve its purpose; I don’t have a cassette player in my car, but I
can connect up my ipod. So, listening to music such as this, in the car, does
help me tolerate the idiot-infested drives I encounter!
The music
itself has its blackened and Satanic heart deeply rooted in traditional black
metal, yet as in the case of many modern death metal bands, that look to the
past, it also sounds fresh and exciting, and in their own words “holds a strong
independent spirit from those that came before”. The bottom line is that it is
an excellent tape, with the music being a perfect antidote for dealing with
everyday life. It’s fast, aggressive and passionate and thoroughly evil; just
what the doctor ordered. The pick of the songs, for me, would be Vaar
Tornekrone, although all are very good, with no filler here.
The tape
itself is limited to 100 copies, and at the time of writing this is down to the
last one, I believe. So you might want to get in sharpish if you want to snag
one.
Tracklist:
1. To Bear False Witness
2. Our Genocide God
3. Vaar Tornekrone
4. World Turned to Ash
5. Om Blèkes Fall
6. On a Pulpit of Souls
On a Pulpit of Souls is available here.
No comments:
Post a Comment