Secret Serpent

Secret Serpent is the first full length work of Kaoskult from Poland. The band although it is not so new as it was formed in 2006, it hasn’t released anything but just a demo in 2010 and Secret Serpent, while it is consisted of three members. This album was released in February of 2014 by the Polish Odium records and it contains seven compositions of an overall duration of about forty minutes. It is not difficult to understand either by the cover, either by the overall artwork that here we deal with another effort inside “orthodox” Black Metal and, judging by the visual stimuli, an effort worked quite well. By the first notes already, we understand that Secret Serpent is indeed an album which follows the schemes and the logic of “orthodox” Black Metal, but can it achieve to do the same good job as the visual, both in the musical work that it presents us here?

The music is dark and puts out a mysterious atmosphere while the riffs are a combination of Death, Black and Thrash influences. The listener will come across threatening, heavy Death Metal riffs, some fast Black outbursts and slower, atmospheric, dark passages and a lot of references to the Thrash riff of Slayer. The band is trying to put out that intense, “thick” darkness and an atmosphere heavy and threatening, something that to a point, it succeeds doing that well. I say that because although they achieve to succeed what they want, their writing process is following exactly the same philosophy in every track, and that reaches the point to make all the tracks be alike a lot with each other. That is, although that there is variety regarding the rhythm and the riffs, the tracks seams almost the same making the compositions boring and after some point tedious. Theoretically, structure of the tracks is good as there are a lot of changes concerning the rhythm and the riffs and those changes are made smoothly. However practically, not even the good structure of the tracks can save a composition that it is recycling the same ideas over and over.

On the other hand now, concerning the production, the mixture and the performance of the instruments, the band has done a really nice job. The guitars are heavy and their sound will bring to your mind Death Metal guitars. They put out that threatening feeling and they create an atmosphere of darkness flawlessly. They are played with absolute accuracy and without any mistake, delivering passion and energy. The bass fills the sound well but its lines are not audible clearly. The drums depending on the part have the appropriate style of playing giving to each part exactly what it needs. In the fast parts the lines are fast blasts with beautiful turnings and chaotic outbursts, while in the slower or mid-paced ones they give the solid feeling and the depth that the compositions need. The approach both regarding the drums is more Death. The vocals are heavy and harsh Black Metal vocals, dirty and somewhat monotonous, they are not bad but neither anything special. The production is bass and clean and along with the mixture, they deliver a very massive, heavy, dark and threatening result. The lyrics are written in English and they are the typical lyrics that you would come across in any such album, that is that they refer to magic, occultism and theistic Satanism.

Secret Serpent, although it has a lot of problems in composition, it has some good ideas which were not carried out as they should in order to get a good result. However the first effort of Kaoskult shows that they love the sound and they have the means to make the technical characteristics of their music good. The only thing that remains now is to prove us if they have the talent required in order to give us a good release. I will be waiting for their next album. The fans of the sound listen to it. The rest of you, pass by.