DRASTUS "La Croix de Sang"

DRASTUS

"La Croix de Sang"

Where Drastus come from or who they actually are, I have no clue. A lot of esoteric black metal bands claim to be mysterious...this one really is. No names, no pictures, no mention of other bands they may play in. Their press sheet is brief to the point of ridiculous and the only real hype is that "La Croix de Sang" has been 10 years in the making. Let the music do the talking!

The music here doesn't just talk, it roars! "Nihil Sine Polum" is a skull-flattening bulldozer of black/death metal. This band is HEAVY in addition to being dark as hell. There are some slightly slower and massively epic riffs on this one. The vocals here are a kind of gasping croak. "Ashura" brings even more blazing speed to bear...so far this will flay the skin right off your bones. It's black metal matching Gorgoroth and Marduk in full flight! But a change is coming...

With "Crawling Fire", Drastus begins to go a more experimental route, with a lot more cold dissonance in the guitar work. The song really does sound like it is crawling and now some weird clean vocals with a quavering feel begin to pop up to make things eerie. Here I detect a resemblance to Deathspell Omega, which also appears in "The Crown of Death", which is a killer, surging black metal tune with majestic riffs. This band has impressed the hell out of me so far!

"Hermetic Silence" provides a brief breather with a subdued, low key instrumental before "Occisor" continues the barrage with a chugging kind of BM. Vocals here are pretty strange and not a little bit annoying. This surprising album ends with the near 10 minute "Constrictor Torrents", which is slower and more ponderous...a kind of blackened doom metal where weird clean vocals and experimental touches again arise.

This is a great slab of aggressive and virulent black metal, with touches of other genres like doom and death. Drastus, I know what I say probably doesn't make a bit of difference to you, but see if you can get your next album out in a little less than 10 years, if you could.

NORMA EVANGELIUM DIABOLI