Blasphemous Warfare

Mitternacht is a one man band, despite their German name, they come from the U.S.A. They were formed in 2020 and after a year they released their first demo, the one that i write about, in the 30th of May 2021, called Blasphemous Warfare. The demo was initially released in digital format and almost after a year, it was released in limited cassette format by Unchained Tapes. The impressive cover is a black and white presentation of the classic 19th century’s painting ‘The Sack of Jerusalem by the Romans’, which shows a violent scene from the early christian era. It is a nice connection with the title and the concepts of this demo. The band presents three tracks in almost ten minutes of raw, straightforward and most of all old school Black Metal.

The music you will find here, is heavily influenced by the old Scandinavian Black Metal scene with a few other references making their appearance, here and there. The riffs are a mixture of tremolo, fast, typical raw Black Metal riffing with a lot of thrashy tendencies, at the same time full of energy, power and hatred, will make your head bang, even unconsciously. Apart from the obvious Scandinavian influences, I feel that there are some references to the raw, blasphemic music of Profanatica and some more melodic, thrashing touches, reminiscent of Grand Belial’s Key. The songs are not that short as you might think, apart from the last song that it lasts for almost two minutes, the duration of other two songs is four minutes each. Although the structure is straightforward and quite predictable, the songs do not become tedious and they can maintain your interest until the final moment.

Regarding the quality of the sound, you should expect exactly what the style of the music demands. Raw, primitive and harsh sound, ugly and menacing production and rehearsal like mixing. Everything is raw and quite amateurish, however this approach is not bad and it adds a romantic/nostalgic vibe to the final result. Sigillvm, the mastermind behind Mitternacht, is performing all instruments and vocals and his performance is at least acceptable. The guitars seem to be his main instrument and they have the best performance in the album, they express the riffs with accuracy and passion. The bass is fuzzy and dirty and it is quite difficult to understand its lines completely. The drums are passionate and steady but they have too simple patterns and they are quite repetitive. The lyrics are not published so I can only guess that they follow that unholy, blasphemous path that the band has followed with the cover and the music.

In conclusion, this short demo is a very satisfying effort by a new artist with potential. Of course, you shouldn’t expect to listen to anything new or innovative here. This is not the purpose of the artist. He is trying to honor the true old school Black Metal sound by replicating the feeling and the aesthetics, and to be honest, I liked the result. The song that I liked most is Blasphemous Warfare. I am sure that all of you, old school maniacs, will appreciate this demo. It is available for free streaming in the band’s bandcamp and soundcloud, so it doesn’t hurt to give it a try.