SejtanE – The Burning Cold
Italian Black Metal is quite often a bit of a hit and miss affair. Asides from a few really good bands who get it right the rest apparently suffer from attention deficit disorder! SejtanE are not one of those thankfully and have created a consistently good album with a couple of really belting songs to boot.
The intro is a proper ritual with tolling gong, demons and sacrificial virgins being ass-fucked and abused for their own pleasure. The title of ‘Receive The Unholy Semen’ says it all! However ‘The Beast Inside’ powers up with a nice semi-tuneful riff steeped in black hate and some exemplary singing. With clever layering these vocals have real depth and clarity but also an ultra necro stench to it.
The next couple of tracks slide past on greased coffins whence ‘Through The Dark Paths’ chops open the airwaves with a slightly unusual riff. ‘Day Of Funeral Procession’ brings a quality dirge to the album. It’s a severely dark track incorporating elements of old school and depressive and nails the harsh emotion of a funeral with demonic summonings firmly together. Moonbeam’s anguish bathed shrieking is enough to drag you into an open casket and seal the lid tightly shut.
‘Witchstone Cult’ seems almost out of place with the other tracks and shows that SejtanE can also offer technical variation and catchy tunes aswell as sombre funerary passages. Its a ripper and is one of those ones to shock passers by with as it blares out of the windows of your house or car. ‘Entering The Great Inferno’ is about as close to an anthem as you’ll get from this band. It finishes off the album nicely by fading out into the sound of roaring fire.
The tracks are pretty primitive in their composition and don’t feature too much variation apart from ‘Receive The Unholy Semen’, ‘Through The Dark Paths’ and ‘Witchstone Cult’. Some people would label this boring but that would be missing the point. This is morose and dispiriting dark art and it achieves that with merit.
Unleashed by American label Wraith Productions in 2009 it stands defiant at nearly an hour long, courtesy of the 12 mainly medium paced but consistent songs in the vein of rough early nineties Black Metal. This is an accomplished collection of dirges and probably one of those once in a while albums. But one that you thoroughly enjoy when you listen to it.
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