Bubonic Christians - Promo Tape MMXIV

BUBONIC CHRISTIANS - Promo Tape MMXIV

I know that nowadays there’s a growing interest in archaic music formats such as vinyl and cassette tapes, but I must say that it is still rather rare to find a promo tape with demo material in a post box. I guess it’s because the bands seldom do demos on tapes by themselves, and if such appear then they’re rather released by the labels in some small quantities, not by the bands – and such are never destined to be sent as promos. So, I must say that even if I am not necessarily a big cassette collector, it’s always cool to find one in the letter. And this time I found one, sent over to me by Alcoholichrist, who I already know from his bands Hell and Alcoholichrist – both really solid underground black metal projects. This time Alcoholichrist sent me a tape of his newest project called Bubonic Christians, which he plays along with Waste on drums and Maxime Taccardi on vocals (this dude is also doing some killer artwork… really obscure and mad… with a lot blood and insane ideas!). “Promo Tape MMXIV” is the first recording, I think it is limited to 11 copies only, released by their own label Casern Bitch Productions. First, I love the layout. The logo is also really great… and the music… at first I was attacked by some lo-fi, chaotic, raw black metal, but once I found myself in the chaos, then I actually started to really dig these sounds and in the end liked the whole material.

French black metal scene is often known for its relentlessness, harshness, primitiveness, for its morbidity, sickness and total no compromise. I am not going to call some names for the examples, as there’s no point. Anyway, Bubonic Christians follows very similar path of depravity. There are two cacophonic and possessed songs, each offering something different. “Morbid” begins with a fast lo-fi black metal, with a lot of noise and distortion, but there are also some excellent, slower parts… A very good track indeed, with some insane vocals of Taccardi. “Let Me Piss On Your Grey Stone” is probably my favourite track here; slower, with great riffage and atmosphere, but also some variety. Think of the combination between classic Norwegian black metal sound and French black metal primitiveness.

The cassette, along with these two songs I mentioned, also brings a couple of instrumental bonus tracks, maybe for the karaoke fans hehe. They’re good also, but I prefer to hear stuff with the vocals. So… Bubonic Christians is a good band, definitely. New material is coming soon, so keep your eye lids open.

Final rate: 69/100