Rating: 8.2

Country: Canada

Release Date: 2006

Track list:
1.With Judas Align
2.As the Cross Turns
3.Sacrosanct Inversion Ritual
4.Faith Be Damned
5.Long for the Great Darkness
6.Pain is God [mp3]
7.Beyond the Veil
8.Under the Banner of Sulfurous Winds
9.Meditations in Occult Static

Band Website: Of Human Bondage

Of Human Bondage – The Goat Sessions Vol. II: Antichristendom, A Revelation

Wehttam Neseirf – strings, vocals
Ekim Nessalk – strings, vocals
Yroc - drums

Yes, those names are merely the band members' real names spelled backwards. Oh well, beats actually making making an effort to conjure up some bullshit pseudo-demonic gibberish like “Graalzebuth” or “Morconthragbz” and pretend it actually means something. This bit of not-very-amusing ponderance aside, according to Of Human Bondage's bio, it's something of an unholy miracle that this album sounds as great as it does. It seems these guys rather enjoy consuming large amounts of mind-altering substances, which sometimes leads to genius, but more often results in bands creating a pile of shit which their drug-addled senses somehow convince them is actually music. The latter result is nowhere to be heard on this CD.

Of Human Bondage plays an extremely varied form of black metal. Rather than sticking to a single sub-subgenre, they're able to swing wildly from what I tend to call “Street” BM – a style exemplified by the likes of Craft and newer Darkthrone – to a much more epic, contemplative style more in line with the likes of Shining, to fast intense black metal violence, and a smattering of bizarre experimental noise passages. The latter two are represented by parts of “Long for the Great Darkness”, which also features some hilarious samples of televangelists (well, that's what it sounds like) and the outro “Meditations in Occult Static”. If I had to pick a standout track amidst all this, it'd probably have to be the 6-minute epic “As The Cross Turns”, which just crushes everything in it's path.

This is unquestionably classic black metal fuelled by intelligent musicianship and more than a little primitive hatred. Never mind the aforementioned band references though, they're simply basic comparisons designed to give you a vague idea of what to expect. There's no plagiarism going on here. Despite only being 40 minutes long, this is a very dense album which takes multiple spins to fully appreciate. The aesthetic qualities are well chosen – it's raw, but very balanced in the mix. Drums are quite faded and mostly serve as a purely rhythmic instrument, never dominating anything else, while the vocals mostly crackle away under the massive wall guitar static.

Complemented with some excellent artwork and well-written lyrics, this is a top-notch release deserving some serious attention. Releases like this one remind me why I still pay attention to underground black metal, because there's still great stuff being released amidst all the cloning technology” Burzum-wannabe crap. With the third installment of the 'Goat Sessions' trilogy still to come, I can only imagine the further heights of evil these maniacs are capable of attaining in the future.

July 3rd, 2006