Ogdru Jahad - I

OGDRU JAHAD - I (ANCIENT DARKNESS  - CD 2014)

I can see that a lot of projects in Denmark are sharing the same members, what can only prove that they all have a great hunger for extreme music. For instance here’s Ogdru Jahad, which shares the members with such bands as Sadogoat, Ligfaerd, Deiquisitor, Wolfslair, Blodfest, Offerkult and others (some of which don’t exist anymore or they’re their ex-members). Ogdru Jahad belongs to the most obscure and fierce bands from there, but damn... what a fine album they did! “I” is the title of it and it was released on LP (by Iron Bonehead) and CD (by Ancient Darkness). There’s a sticker with the band’s logo and the statement “black metal of death”… and I can’t think of any better description of this morbid and utterly evil music as this.

This outburst of filth and obscurity can easily be placed in the same old rotten coffin, where such bands like Teitanblood, Profanatica, Bestial Warlust, Blasphemy, Revenge, Conqueror or Archgoat were buried. It is just primitive ejaculation of hatred and desecration. This abhorrent music is based on very simple riff and arrangements, it is just basic and with no special effects or other fireworks; simply raw and harsh bestial black death metal. What Ogdru Jahad does well is that, despite being so archaic and primitive, they captured the essence of such music perfectly, creating a killer obscure atmosphere and simply managing to burst out the energy, which blows the speakers out. Tempo wise, this album is mostly just fast. Ogdru Jahad hardly ever uses some more variations (but there are some sick, chaotic solos, which even remind me the old Morbid Angel demos, what about that?! Haha) and hardly ever slows down to achieve more massive and heavy approach; they prefer slightly one dimensional, constant riff slaughter, something we here in Poland would call “nakurw” (find out yourself what this word means haha!). And yes, I do realize that “I” is nothing spectacular nor original, there were many similar bands in the past and nowadays we can also spot quite a healthy condition of this extreme scene, with many newer, but often truly great bands. Ogdru Jahad is nothing what would make conflagration… but damn, I somehow don’t care and had really a lot of pleasant hours with “I”.

I also must mention the killer logo of Ogdru Jahad and also the fantastic artwork for this album, where Lovecraftian lizard monsters and other ancient mythical creatures are attacking the well known figure on the cross. What a nice artwork by Alexander Brown! While the name was taken from the “Hellboy” comic books (where Ogdru Jahad are the Dragon of Revelation, and are destined to bring about the end of the world). So, summing this all up – very fine, solid album from Ogdru Jahad. It’s only their debut, but I am sure it won’t be their final word.

Final rate: 70/100