Noctifer / Acheronte / Hate Them All / Arma Christi - Eternal Evil

ACHERONTE / ARMA CHRISTI / NOCTIFER / HATE THEM ALL - Eternal Evil (BLACK DEATH Production - MC 2013)

“Eternal Evil” is the new split,a which was released by Black Death Production on limited to 500 copies cassette. Wow, 500 is quite a lot, considering how underground this material is, so I wonder if they’ll ever manage to sell everything. OK, not my problem. “Eternal Evil” is sort of Polish / Italian black metal alliance, as there are two Polish and two Italian bands… Let’s check what’s inside.

And first is Acheronte, which is an Italian black metal band. Well, I have never heard of them before and to be honest these two songs, which they have included on this tape, will probably not encourage me to listen to anything else from their discography… It is just very mediocre, typical and totally unoriginal, almost predictable black metal stuff in pure underground way… Well, I do realize that sometimes such bands can provide some cool music and be good and solid enough to enjoy it, but Acheronte is maybe just too weak and mediocre for me. I don’t like their songs so much, also the production is not powerful enough, so I feel like this music is totally forgettable. Maybe if it was released back in 1995, then it would impress more, today it comes in one ear and goes away right through the other. Definitely though if you’re not demanding black metal maniac, who likes his stuff to be fast and harsh, then Acheronte is for you. Another band from side A is Polish Arma Christi and I must say that I liked their debut demo, released recently. I am happy to say that these two new songs only confirm the quality of Thorn’s, who is the only member of Arma Christi, music. And unlike the boring stuff of Acheronte, here these two songs are really damn vicious and powerful and if they are fast then they do sound fast and strong, not weak and poor. “Dies Irae” for example is just awesome. Great riffs, even some more melodic stuff here and there, but also more diverse with the tempos and riffing style… I wonder though what the orthodox, die hard black metal maniacs will think of “Evil Transformation”. This song is quite controversial, I think, taking some riffs and vocals for consideration and personally I also am not sure what should I think about. Anyway, Arma Christi is at least kind of black metal band, which actually tries to make something more interesting, not just plain and simple, boring forgettable shit.

Side B and next is Noctifer from Italy… They have already two full length albums recorded and were formed in 1997, so Noctifer is the most experienced band from the whole split. And I think you can hear that, because their music sounds most impressive, effective and maybe I shouldn’t use the word professional, because it doesn’t fit such underground black metal bands, but for sure it is the best stuff from the entire cassette, taking for consideration both compositions, song structures, but also performance and production qualities. Noctifer is fast as hell, really violent and furious, but also with a small melodic accent here and there, their music has this Swedish black metal feeling, so it may remind you even such bands as Setherial and from Italy I would probably mention Naer Mataron. I really like both songs of Noctifer, their riffs, tempo changes, the atmosphere of the music and more so, the vocals of Fvrivs, who maybe sometimes tries to sound too much like Emperor Caligula, but who cares… All in all I am very impressed by Noctifer and for me they’re the best band from “Eternal Evil”. And the final band is Hate Them All. This anonymous band appeared on quite many split releases recently, but I only know their songs from the split with Moloch Letalis, which I didn’t like at all. Here on “Eternal Evil” they carry on trying to sound like the Darkthrone from some of their recent albums, so it is very simple and primitive, filthy and obscure kind of black’n’roll… OK, it isn’t terrible. It is fine, but how many times can I listen to such riffs like the one, which opens “Życiem upokórz śmierć” and which just sounds like taken directly from such LP as “FOAD”? Personally I prefer more straight forward or atmospheric kind of black metal, so Hate Them All will probably never impress me anymore. Never say never, I know, but who would give a shit?

Final rate: 65/100