Even in underground terms, Ignis Fatuus is hardly a recognisable name, but as drummer for Portal, Grave Upheaval and Impetuous Ritual, the black-hooded Australian is at the cutting edge of Death Metal’s abstract progression into something closer to Noise and Dark Ambient. 2013 was the year when that style – finally picking up the baton of discordance laid down by Gorguts in the late 90’s – exploded, with Portal’s Vexovoid among its most exciting releases.
On first listen, Impetuous Ritual are by far the most “normal” of the Fatuus hat-trick, with recognisable riffs and a surging, chaotic Black/Death Metal approach that owes more than a little to bands like Blasphemy and Diocletian. After Portal’s deceptively eloquent Noise-as-Art abstractions and Grave Upheaval’s transformation of death metal into utterly monolithic, lightless ambient soundscapes, IR’s second album almost seems a let-down – generic noisy Death Metal that we’ve heard before. Perseverance, however, is rewarded, and Impetuous Ritual are revealed not merely as a half-way point between their more obvious siblings, but as a band equally worthy in their own right.
What raises Unholy Congregation… (Profound Lore) beyond the generic clatter-clatter-bang is the structure of the album, which leads the listener from relatively conventional chaotic Death Metal into tracks that combine the abstract, distorted qualities of Fatuus’ other bands with the destructive fury of Antediluvian. The first three tracks rips through a powerful but familiar swamp of riffs and blasts before Despair splits itself into a more atmospheric – even ambient – piece reminiscent of the last Grave Upheaval album, and from there the album opens into something much stranger and more diverse, yet always feels like a consistent, complete album.
People who find this style of cavernous, eldritch Death Metal too chaotic and lacking in melody are still not going to be happy with Unholy Congregation…, but this is a master-class in how to make Death Metal which embraces the more abstract side of the genre without losing sight of its riff-based roots, and prove that Transdimensional Ancient Squid Death Metal isn’t a dead trend yet.
9/10
RICHARD HR