Azelisassath - Total Desecration of Existence

AZELISASSATH - Total Desecration of Existence (AVANTGARDE - CD 2017)

When I first heard Azelisassath from their second album "Evil Manifestations Against Mankind" (2014) I immediately added them to my list of favourite Swedish black metal projects. With third album "Total Desecration of Existence" (2015) Swartadauþuz (who is now the only member of Azelisassath) proved his worth and created probably the best - or one of the very best - album in his career. And remember that he's also a member of other fantastic bands such as Gnipahålan, Bekëth Nexëhmü and Musmahhu. If you take all these bands together, it means that this man is an obscure extreme metal genius, who constantly does great job, whichever project we’re talking about! 

But back to "Total Desecration of Existence". This album is a complete traditional, necro black metal, with compositions based on the classic formulas that were created 30-25 years ago. But when compared to his previous album, this third Azelisassath spawn is better in every damn aspect. The production is cleaner, yet it keeps the necessary harshness and viciousness with cold, grim atmosphere and ghastly, hateful, negative feel. But guitars sound so well, and so do drums and vocals also - which were performed this time by Hellchrist Xul. It all sounds harsh, but powerful, so I have to say that "Total Desecration of Existence" production is close to perfection, for this style of music.  

And the music is fierce, aggressive, and the songwriting is much more diverse, less primitive and far more interesting than on the previous album. There are surprisingly some melodic parts, also quite few fragments, which have a strong melancholic and sorrowful aura. But of course there's plenty of vicious and malicious black metal as well. Fast or mid paced tempos dominate here, but the balance between them is very appropriate, so none of these songs sound boring. And well, this album is fantastic. I absolutely love the music, its feeling and atmosphere Azelisassath creates. I dare to say that it's rare to hear such black metal nowadays, which would be traditional, cold and grim necro style, but still so fresh sounding. So, without giving any particular parts of "Total Desecration of Existence" as especially worthy and recommended, I would say this album is a complete high class black metal. 

Verdict: 90/100