Rating: 7.5

Country: Sweden

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Oaken Sheild/Adipocere Records

Track list:
1.The Discipline of David
2.Intro
3.In Odium Veritas
4.The Superior Creed
5.Dreams For Ingrates
6.Human Delirium
7.Thorn
8.Bluescreen/The Enemy

Band Website: Zavorash

Zavorash - In Odium Veritas

I. Hate - Drums, Bass, Backing Vocals, Arrangements
Totalscorn - Vocals
Nil - Lead and Rhythm Guitars

Well, you could've fooled me that this CD isn't mostly reissued demo material. It consists of Zavorash's 1998 demo 'In Odium Veritas' plus two extra tracks recorded in 2002 and one unreleased track from the demo. The newer material here is a fair bit more melodic and experimental than the demo stuff – especially the last track “Bluescreen/The Enemy” which is an absolutely bizarre industrial soundscape overlaid with a spoken word piece consisting of a nihilistic worldview rattled off for a few minutes. I'm not sure where they got it from, but it's certainly amusing. Unfortunately this track is also rather boring and repetitious, so it becomes skip-material after a few listens.

As for the rest, this is blazing Swedish black/death metal, reminiscent of Funeral Mist, Sigrblot and Dissection, but a bit less atmospheric than those bands. That lack of “grim” atmosphere is mostly attributable to the very clean production, which makes all the instruments quite audible – although the bass is typically quiet on the demo material, but makes its presence strongly felt on “The Discipline of David”, which is easily the most developed track on offer in terms of structure and musicianship. It's an obvious progression from the demo tracks – searing, divebombing tremolo riffs overlaid upon snappy drums and snarling throaty rasped vocal exhortations. Which basically means it's catchy as fuck and instantly appealing for any aficionado of pure, well played black metal without needless keyboards or gothic bullshit.

As this is the only Zavorash material easily obtainable so far, it's difficult to say how much the band has progressed since the newer material was recorded, but given the 3-year gap since, I can imagine the (as yet unreleased) new album is going to slay. In the meantime, this is a good introduction to an impressive band, despite being a bit of a mishmash as opposed to a cohesive singular recording. Massive bonus points, though, for the “lyrics” printed in the booklet for the last track. Even though they're not even used in the song, they're absolutely hilarious and worth the price of admission alone. The lyrics in general are extremely blasphemous, yet written in an unusually sardonic manner which makes them highly entertaining. I won't even mention the band pictures, which need to be seen rather than described.

December 30th, 2005