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Involtation (CD)
Lucifugum's "twelfth cup of poison" (as the band themselves describe this album) presents eight tracks of melodic yet extremely raw black metal. The band also view this album as an insult to the "scene" full of wormy human instincts. Well, I only have my wormy human instincts to rely on for this review but I'll do my best nonetheless, OK?
First some words about the production. The guitars sound like a swarm of wasps, extremely distorted and with no bottom end whatsoever. The bass is slightly distorted and can actually be heard every now and then, it could it be a bit higher in the mix though. The drums are very unevenly mixed. I can't hear any bass drums at all and the toms are almost inaudible as well. The snare can be heard loud and clear but it has a very annoying hollow sound to it, which pisses me off. This kind of production is something only the diehards will be able to cope with. The album this production can be compared to the most is Graveland's "Following the Voice of Blood", except for the fact that the guitars are even more distorted on "Involtation". I'd go as far as saying that the production destroys some of the potential the material has and with a better production this album would've received an even higher rating from me.
As for the music itself, it's not bad at all and should satisfy everyone into extreme black metal. The riffs are melodic and quite technical, reminding me mostly of old Abigor stuff (especially "Verwüstung - Invoke the Dark Age"). In other words, "Involtation" has nothing to do with the traditional Ukrainian BM sound. For example "Siyayuschie Molchanie", "Predely Nepostizhimogo", "Ritualy Proistekayuschego" and "Onorovlivanie" are all real killer tracks in the style of old Abigor. Most of the time the guitars play totally different melodies at the same time. This makes the songs a bit chaotic and it takes a while to get into them properly (the production doesn't help matters much either). The first times I listened to this album the guitars sounded like nothing more than a buzzing chaos but the more you listen, the more you'll understand. Stabaath's vocals are good and quite high in the mix. She certainly sounds like
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