Written by Zax
- Black Altar and Vulture Lord – Deathiah Manifesto
- Black Metal from Poland and Norway
- Releasing on February 15th via Odium Records
Man, 2022 is already shaping up to be a way better year for black metal than 2021 was. I understand that black metal is generally a cesspool, but the best black metal out there is as good as extreme metal gets, period. The genre also produces a lot of badass splits, and we’re taking a look at one of those today.
https://odiumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/black-altar-vulture-lord-deathiah-manifesto
Poland’s Black Altar and Norway’s Vulture Lord are joining forces on this new split that’s set to drop on February 15th. I love the diversity that comes with splits. Each of these bands has their own distinct sound and appeal, but they compliment each other so well, making for an all around kickass experience.
Black Altar kicks off the project with their more authentic, traditional 2nd wave black metal stylings. This side is very frigid in tone, and the riffs pack a lot of texture in there. It’s an absolutely raging performance to be sure, especially with those blastbeats. The vocals sound nice and evil as well. I really enjoy the production on this side too. Top notch black metal on display here, no doubt about it. These guys have been around since ’96 and it shows.
Vulture Lord, on the other hand, comes through with a much more straightforward, aggressive blackened thrash metal approach. The riffs on this side are razor sharp, the drums sound like machine gun blasts. This shit is violent. Love the energy, and the genuine darkness felt from the tones. They end their side with a 5 minute long ambient piece that really rounds things out quite nicely.
This thing had tons of impact front to back. Both sides hold dynamic, evil performances. You gotta love it. Don’t miss it.