Beherit The Oath Of Black Blood

Beherit 'The Oath Of Black Blood' (Emetic 2009)

Beherit's 'Demonomancy' demo and 'Dawn of Satan's Millennium' seven inch are compiled on this LP of which I expected much more. The cover is a actually a pretty good Chris Moyen which brings to mind 'Tombs of the Blind Dead' rather than his usual over the top engorged wolf-goats ripping helpless priest to bits and the vinyl sounds very decent, but there is something lacking and a little bit cheap about this release. The poster is awful and really badly reproduced, there's no liner notes, no lyrics, no old photos and the cover just seems shoddy; a real lack of effort and love has gone into this.

As for the music, it's immature, lacking in proficiency and beyond chaotic. However, it possesses, possessed being the operative word, such barbaric hatred and antagonism that it stands in proud defiance of any such niceties as recognisable tunes or musical prowess.

Cavernous, reverberating vocals attack on at least three levels, whispered necromancy, grunting horror and mid pitched white noise take to the forefront whilst somehow still being in the background. The vocals on 'Beast of Damnation' have to be heard to be believed; an awesome attack of unrelenting evil. In fact the whole of the 'Dawn....' seven inch takes the primitive rawness of side one's demo and turns everything up to 11.

This is not an easy listen from these Finnish maniacs, as tumbling overloud drums follow uncontrolled buzzsaw guitars, which actually makes it all the more enjoyable. Everything about this records reeks of the influence of the infamous Ross Bay Cult Eternal known as Blasphemy. Even the hilarious noms de guerre; Nuclear Holocausto, Black Jesus, Necroperversor are quaint homages to Black Winds and his mates!

This is an early example, the recordings are both from 1990, of the bestial black metal template that is still used to murderous effect by the likes of Teitanblood and Deiphago. It's also a great indication of the type of nastiness that was around long before Darkthrone abandoned their career as Stockholm idolaters.

Apparently Beherit were involved in quite a few pranks trying to inflame a rivalry between the Finnish and Norwegian scenes when the self-proclaimed 'Black Metal Mafia' were telling all and sundry that there music was beyond any criticism (and that's putting it mildly). Fortunately this 'Dark War' didn't result in any Tolkien freaks killing each other, but based on the wild abandon they expressed in their music I would put my money on Beherit taking on all hypnotic or symphonic Norwegian sissies!

Worth getting for the music if you don't already have it on multiple CD releases, not such great value for money when you consider the poorly executed packaging.

Some of you may have guessed that this is my tribute to the 'Death Metal Christmas Card'!

Peace