Chrismation

Deus Ignotus is a band from the big Greek underground scene. They consist of two members, formed in 2007 and they have released two demos, a split and “Chrismation”, their first full length album, in the beginning of 2012. I got to know Deus Ignotus by their demos and in fact they didn’t impress me. In this album, they change their musical direction from typical Norwegian sound, to a heavier, fast, bestial Black Metal which reminds of Archgoat’s school. The album contains eight tracks of about 26 minutes.

As you understand from the short duration of the album, the compositions are storms. Fast, straightforward and brutal. As it usually happens in this kind of music direction, there isn’t a great variation concerning the riffing. We’ll come across mainly to fast, brutal riffs with a few mid – tempo passages. The guitars try to deliver the riffs the best way possible, but in some parts the sound is so dirty that you can’t figure out the riff. The drums are played very well, fast and brutally, without mistakes. From the other hand, I couldn’t listen to the bass, because of the dirty sound. The vocals are heavy Death/Black vocals, reminding those of Archgoat.

The production is bassy and noisy, although it makes the sound a little saturated, the dirt that it creates, fits the music’s style, it gives a massive and brutal result. The lyrics are written in English but they are not contained in the cd. By the track’s titles I understand that they express the band’s hatred and blasphemies to christianity.

Generally the album has good ideas but for sure, it doesn’t have to offer anything new to the genre. The points that I enjoyed were the straightforward and brutal style and the quite short compositions. From the other hand the noisy sound makes the listen a little difficult. Those of you who search brutal Death/Black will appreciate “Chrismation”. The rest of you just listen to it.