Throne Below – Winter Eternal
Hailing from Bloemfontein in South Africa, Throne Below purvey raw Black Metal. Although it is probably the last country you’d think of to have artists influenced by Winter’s icy grip there is a fledgling scene going on there right now. Some of it is geared to more mainstream audiences and some more experimental but this seven track self produced demo appeared as a sizeable blip on the Hell Furnace radar of darkness.
A one man band, written, performed and recorded by Orlok. This is one of those ultra low budget, harsh and raw demos. However Throne Below doesn’t fall into the shit category many others do. Embracing the rawness are some good arrangements, ideas and totally necro vocals; he opens his gob and out comes a vitriolic tornado of great bellowing and grubby screams.
When I first began to get into Black Metal I was well impressed by Dead from Mayhem and his antics of getting vocal inspiration by sniffing from a bag with a dead raven inside it. After hearing Winter Eternal a few times I began to realise that the only thing that could inspire someone to sing like this was by gulping the swirling fumes inside a musty old sack stuffed full of roasted shit! They are that grim! I fail to see another way to describe the fuckin’ massive low pitched rumbling groans on ‘Ov the Blackest Incarnation.‘
The riffing is more often of medium to fast tempo, with blast beats to match, and has good momentum in the composition. Orlok has managed to craft some intense, complex and technical passages here too, without sounding cluttered, which is a rarity when you consider the fundamental basic nature of this style. Sure, it takes a few listens to get your head and ears accustomed to it but once they are you’ll appreciate the approach.
There are some nice background guitars that add wolf-like baying in the opening parts of the first track. This layering provides a nice depth and I often noticed the almost subliminal work going on behind the main thrust of the tunes and it also means that you’ll hear something different in the songs until you become highly familiar with them.
The title track offers up some dark haunting melodies with a depressing edge to them and is probably the most accomplished of the songs on the EP. To vary things there is a short interlude type thing and a four minute ambient track. This isn’t my scene at all but it does state on their Myspace page that it is Black Metal / Ambient, so I’m sure if you like that stuff then you’ll enjoy it. Asides from that the only other criticism I have is the dodgy cover of Dark Funeral’s ‘Apprentice of Satan’ which adds nothing to the EP.
However, the four traditional Black Metal songs really make this EP which you can hear in full at the band’s Myspace page. It is always nice to hear some fresh ideas brought to bear. I reckon Throne Below is a band with good potential. If you have an appetite for rawness then Winter Eternal is a worthy addition to your CD mountains.
I admit I was more than a little sceptical when I got a request to review this Italian band. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a band that sounded more like some American gospel singers than satanic Black Metal! Thankfully after literally one second of listening my somewhat ridiculous assumptions were raped and pillaged [...]
I only recently discovered Rahu, who purvey original and very replayable Finish Black Metal of the highest calibre. This is a demo from 2008 that has since been released as part of a best of featuring this and their other demo on one CD. Although there are only three tracks delivering a mere seventeen minutes [...]
“…gulping the swirling fumes inside a musty old sack stuffed full of roasted shit!” fuckin LOL …fuckin foul!!
A hellfuck of nostalgic power, though the drumming partially is quite annoying due to its arhythmic character. However, I had never expected such purity spitting from the southest hole of the civilised world.
I truly enjoy this..very raw awesome work done by this man..