Label: Witching Hour Productions
Distribution: Witching Hour Productions
Review: CD

Witching Hour Productions is a Polish label, located in the North-Eastern city of Bialystok, not far from the Belarusian border. Last year we could enjoy material from bands like Non Opus Dei, Morowe, Moon and Magnus (reviews posted in 2010, resp. on October 13th, October 7th, November 26th and October 13th), and earlier this year we had a new release by Bloodwritten (see 02/02/11).
The next months will see the release of more interesting material, new and re-issued, done by bands like Azarath, Burial Hordes or Seagulls Insane And Swans Deceased Mining Out The Void (and the re-release of some of Behemoth’s earliest recordings too!), and the first half of this year brought us another three-piece package (or is it a three-piece present?).
Iperyt’s new full length, as a matter of fact, isn’t released by WHP, yet through Iperyt Productions, the band’s own label; however, the official distribution is done by WHP. The other reviews concern Mastiphal (not their first album on WHP’s roster) and Nomad.
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Band: Iperyt
Title: No State Of Grace
Release date: February 15th (LP) / March 1st 2011 (CD)

I love them, these goody-goodies of Iperyt. A bunch of sonic terrorists with expressive names like People Hater, Black Messiah (Mastiphal / InDread Cold’s Daamr), Hellhound (Mastiphal’s Cymeris), The Shocker and Abuser, with releases titled as Particular Hatred (EP 2005) and Totalitarian Love Pulse (CD 2006)… Sing-alongs for the wicked…

The recordings of this second full length date from 2009 and 2010, and they were done at Maq Studio with co-producer Jaroslaw Toifl, also known from his work with bands like Mastiphal, Ador Dorath, Horrorscope, Mouga or Division By Zero, to name but a few. It is the first release on their self-called label, by the way, and it lasts for forty one minutes.

The members call their play Terrorcore and I think it’s a rather good description. Iperyt can’t be called just another Black Metal band, because this album too, like any former effort, goes way beyond ‘average’, ‘normal’ (Black) Metal. The fundaments indeed are Black-based, yet of the most militaristic kind. The band, for example, does not use normal drums or percussions whatsoever, yet a drum machine, which does give the songs a slightly psychopathic and somewhat nervous attitude. You like it or you don’t, but I have to admit it does work out very well.
Seen from instrumental point of view, the band injects its Black-oriented Sounds of Terror with elements from related genres; ‘related’ such as in ‘extreme’: Grindcore, Death Metal, Industrial Metal and Power Electronics Techno. It’s a definition of sonic Chaos, yet of the most well-structured kind. And in spite of many Polish colleagues that intent to combine utter aggression with musical escapades, Iperyt perform it with grandeur and with, yet it’s permitted this time, a tasteful portion of exaggeration. Noise with brains, you see.
My problem with this sub-genre is that many recordings do bother after a while. Being the most extreme band on Mater Terra (too) often seems to be of more importance than creating something unique; or bands just try to, yet don’t succeed to. Iperyt, however, do not belong to this sad category. It has to do as well with the variation these guys know to implement. Variation, believe me or not, yet it’s a fantastic surplus this band is able of to execute. The many, many tempo-changes and breaks, as well as the diversity between different speeds, the varying vocals (screams, grunts, yells, shouts, growls etc.), the addition of some atmospheric keyboard lines, it’s just an excerpt of the things Iperyt add to this Noise to make it all sound so much more interesting.
Gonna give these guys a hug?

87/100
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Band: Mastiphal
Title: Parvzya
Release date: May 15th 2011

Katowice-based Mastiphal (there used to be another diabolic Black Metal band with the very same moniker, hailing from Gdansk, that only short-lived in the first half of the nineties) were formed in 1991 by Flauros (later also in Darzamat and InDread Cold) and Cymeris (of Iperyt-fame). Initially their band was called Dissolution, but after a year or so, they decided to change the moniker due to a change in musical direction as well. Throughout the years, the band underwent several line-up changes, and with differing members, Mastiphal created a limited yet impressive and mostly interesting discography during the nineties.
After a ten-year break, both original members decided to resurrect this collaboration and when they signed to Witching Hour Productions, this label released Damnatio Memoriae, a double-album with all formerly released Mastiphal-material (which includes the band’s contribution to tribute- or compilation-projects) and some live bonus tracks.
Nowadays, the band also consists of (former / session / permanent) colleagues from bands like Iperyt, InDread Cold and Darzamat, by the way.

Parvzya indeed is the first new recording in more than a decade. It had been registered at Hunted House and Maq Studio with Jaroslaw Toifl (e.g. Mouga, Iperyt, Division By Zero, Horrorscope, Ador Dorath), and the album was mixed at the famous Swedish Necromorbus Studio (!), being one of the very few non-Swedish albums that got / gets recorded out there. But… whatever you try, one cannot deny the Necromorbus-sound, even though the general approach isn’t Swedish (at all). The sound is so recognizable and brings bands like Funeral Mist, Valkyrja and Watain to mind.
Mastiphal’s Black Metal comes with a certain Post-Black-alike approach, especially when it comes to the pounding rhythm instrumentation and some slightly experimental guitar riffs. Flauros’ fire-breathing vocals add a transcending level to this suffocative grimness, which comes in different speeds and levels of oppression and misanthropy. It brings back the glorious days of Old School Thrash madness within a sulphuric haze, enriched with an apocalyptic atmosphere and a touch of Chaos and Armageddon with an obsessive character.

Duration: 38:27 minutes.

[FYI: Mastiphal are named after a demonic prince]

84/100
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Band: Nomad
Title: Transmigration Of Consciousness
Release date: March 21st 2011

Nomad, formed in 1994, recorded this new (fifth) full length between April 2009 and October 2010. Indeed, they took quite a lot of time to achieve the most perfect result. Engineering and mix were done at the famous Hendrix Studio by Arek ‘Malta’ Malczewski (think Misteria, Vesania, Lost Soul, Behemoth, Azarath, Moon etc.), the mastering by the Wieslawski-brothers at Bialystok-based Hertz Studio (the same city as WHP’s headquarters). Now the album is available at the store, about four years after their last studio full length, The Independence Of Observation Choice (Luce Clarius).

Transmigration Of Consciousness, lasting for forty minutes, opens with the intro short Are You Ready …, and as a matter of fact, each song gets preceded by an intro (except for the album’s intro, all of them are nameless, the outro included). In most cases this does work, yet a few times it’s rather superfluous and troublesome (Intro 15, for example, what the f…).
The actual songs bring a combination of Old School Death Metal with limited elements from Black / Thrash / Doom / Doom-Death Metal, but everything gets performed the Polish way. What does it mean, besides the non-deniable helping hands of Arek Malczewski on the one hand, and Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawski on the other? Well, what about the intensive power of the individual songs? What about the experimental, sometimes dissonant song structures? And what with the mechanical and super-natural atmosphere?
The emphasis is bruteness, militaristic rhythmicism and technical identification of intelligent song writing. It does come with elements that bring Behemoth, Vader, Vesania, Yattering, Trauma and Lux Occulta to mind, yet Nomad do not just copy any band just like that.

Splendid cover artwork, by the way! What a fine details!

80/100
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Ivan Tibos