Foedus - Foul of Bethlehem

FOEDUS - Foul of Bethlehem (WOLFSPELL Records CD 2018)

Once again Wolfspell Records searched through the Finnish woods and brought us yet another black metal project from there. That's an obsession almost! But when I listen to some of these absolutely killer Finnish bands like Kalmankantaja or Iku Turso, which you can also find in the catalogue of this excellent label, I think that it's an absolutely justified kind of obsession. Well, Foedus is another newcomer from Suomi, but to be honest, their debut is much more mediocre than I expected. It's solid piece of black metal, sure, there are some great aspects about it, but overall it just isn't anything what would really impress me a lot.  

But if you like your Finnish black metal to sound nasty, vicious and raw, then this stuff is for you. Because most of the content of this short album is exactly as such. There's plenty of fast paced type of black metal, very aggressive and ferocious sounding, with good dose of good riffage and dark, obscure atmosphere. But Foedus adds some melodic accents here and there, with some almost folky sounding type of harmonies, which gives a bit more varied result. It sounds pretty much typical for the Finnish black metal scene, to be honest, but there isn't anything wrong about it, I think. Do not expect them to sound to bloody harsh and evil as Horna or Sargeist though. Anyway, the first few songs sound not bad at all, after a while I started to get a little bored with "Foul of Bethlehem". I feel like they play the same type of riffs over and over again and none of the next songs brings anything more interesting than the previous ones. It all becomes too predictable, infantile and just mediocre. So, I don't think I will be returning to Foedus music too often. And I doubt this album will bring high interest in this band neither.  

Standout track: "Foul of Bethlehem"  

Verdict: 60/100