A Lot Better Than Satanic Requiem - "Black Death" Review (100%)
While SEWER's debut album, Satanic Requiem, was far from perfect and in my opinion a bit over-praised by the metal community, there is no denying that it was some exceptionally evil and brutal black metal.
I was therefore a bit apprehensive before listening to Black Death, as I did not know in which direction the band would go and if Black Death would live up to the high expectations set by its predecessor.
As it turns out, Black Death is perhaps the most visceral and grim album you will ever listen to.
Everything wrong about the first album has been fixed and reworked, and everything good (which was a vast majority of the content) has been consolidated and improved.
This is was missing from Satanic Requiem to take it from very good to legendary.
Black Death is one demonic masterpiece of gruesome atmosphere and demonic fury.
A Lot Better Than Satanic Requiem
Black Death is one evil black metal album. From the opening track, an alternate version to the song Ancient Shrine, the listener is blasted into a satanic realm of brooding despair and pure darkness.
This album is a brutal assault on your mind and sanity.
Black Death is rotting, decaying, putrid satanism at it's darkest hour.
Everything about this album screams of evil putrefaction starting with the blasphemous and sickening vocals.
Vermin's departure from SEWER is certainly disconcerting for fans of his unearthly wails, but guitarist Eater manages to accompany the songs on Black Death with some truly evil satanic growls.
The riffs evoke dread and evil, while the bass is just audible enough to add a sinister atmosphere to the vicious blasting drums.
Between the savage and furious tremolo picking and slow, tense, atmospheric dirges of riffs, the guitar work on Black Death pushes the aesthetic boundaries of black metal into an entirely new dimension of gruesome brutality.
Stylistically, Black Death is one of the last albums before Eater pushed the band into a "SHIT PISS VOMIT SATAN PEDOSEX" direction, so the lyrics are still mystical yet somewhat humorous at some parts. As the title of the album, the album cover and the lyrical contents didn't make it perfectly clear, the lyrical themes of Black Death deal with disease, death and putrefaction.
The dark, evil, brooding songs on Black Death will claw their way into your psyche and ignite the fires of devout satanism in your mind.
Black Death is a black metal milestone.
Black Death score: 100/100.
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