EMPHERIS / BEAST PETRIFY - Petrified
Through Aeons in the Light of Providence (W.M.PSYCHO - CD 2012)
I guess it would be a wasted year, if Empheris
didn’t unleash the new portion of their music. In 2012 the band prepared for us
their newest split release, which they share with Singaporean Beast Petrify and
which is titled “Petrified Through Aeons in the Light of Providence”. Showing
their appreciation for the creations of the certain Providence based author of
horror novels, they do so with their old styled metal cults and 45 minutes of
relentless metal aggression. And like I already mentioned few times before, I
like split releases a lot and so I was looking forward for this one as well,
even though I’m not so familiar with Beast Petrify so much. I knew the name of
this band, the person of Al-Fahmi rings the bell also, as he’s well experienced
in the underground struggles. But while I was certain that Empheris will please
me one more time with their crushing music, I was also quite afraid of what
will Beast Petrify deliver. I’m just not a big fan of the Asian bands, really.
I can agree than many people and bands out there are real die hard maniacs,
with the heart and passion for this music, but that doesn’t go in hand with the
quality of the music or bands from there. So often they just annoyed me with
the primitiveness and shitty productions that I won’t count. There were some
exceptions of corpse, to mention the almighty Impiety will be enough here, but
also Surrender of Divinity or Japanese Anatomia, but I don’t think there would
be many more than that.
So, I was very sceptic about Beast Petrify’s
part of “Petrified Through Aeons in the Light of Providence”, so the more I was
surprised and happy how cool their music turned out to be. OK, I may not be
familiar with any of their previous recordings (and they already have three
full length albums in their discography!), but what I’ve found on “Petrified
Through Aeons in the Light of Providence” is just very fine and solid. Beast
Petrify plays sort of very classic, very old styled death and thrash metal,
pretty much based on the Teutonic styles, mainly Kreator… So, the riffs are
devastating with cruel force, the music is just pure mayhem and even the vocals
are more or less in the vein of Mille Petroza, maybe slightly more screamy. Adding
some occasional riffs, which are more into the good old Slayer, the result is
just awesome. Oh, and I cannot forget about the very Deicide resembling
riffing, etc in fragment of “Pembalasan Penanggal Puaka”, as well as the
furious blend of death and thrash in “Epidemic Glimpse of Horror”. The
production of this Singaporean band is also more than I expected, it’s very
good actually; powerful, energetic, well sounding and relatively clean, but
still maintaining the raw edge of this kind of music. So, I did enjoy the part
of Beast Petrify quite much... Even if not everything in their music is perfect
and excellent, in the end I can say that they’re good band. There’s only one
thing, which I don’t like on the Beast Petrify’s part of the split and that’s the
covers which they’ve done, as they sound so primitive that they rather annoy
me. Unfortunately Beast Petrify recorded them during their rehearsal
desecrations, so both covers (of Deicide and Sepultura) are hardly audible...
I’m just too old for poorly recorded rehearsal tracks; they annoy me more and
more. So, I rather skip those two covers and go back to the main Beast Petrify
songs.
Meanwhile, from Empheris I just got exactly
what I expected and what I’m already used to. Those bastards do not dare to experiment
and just play what they like most… which is old styled thrash metal, mixed with
some black metal influences. Their music evolved through the years, at the
beginning it was black metal oriented more, while nowadays the thrash metal
style is more dominant, although still Empheris can add some fuel to the fire
and blast fast like crazy. The song “Blood Stains Thy Flesh” is the best
example here. From the other hand “Lost in the Providence” sounds like good old
Kreator and there’s one part in this track, when I though they play “Flag of
Hate” hehe, while “Spitfire Thrash” sounds like a mixture of Venom’s “Black
Metal” (just listen to the beginning of this track; it’s almost a rip off
hehe!) and Motorhead in some parts with the German thrash metal… And for the
end Empheris offers us a killer cover of Bathory’s “Home of Once Brave” and I
must admit that I love it! This is just excellent performance, really well
played and sang by Adrian, who mimics Quorthon epic voice perfectly. Even
though I always considered “Under the Black Mark” and “The Return” LPs as my
favourites, I also love the epic Viking trilogy of Bathory (who doesn’t??), so
I always get goose skin, when I hear those riffs and majestic vocals. Fuckin
excellent! This cover, on its own, is enough reason to purchase a copy of “Petrified
Through Aeons in the Light of Providence”, trust me. Especially that this CD is
sold in ridiculously low price (approx of 3 dollars!)!
Final rate: 75/100
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