A dense, intense and filthy nightmare…
Released by Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions on 6 October 2017
Review by Jason Guest
Formed in 1997, France’s Arkhon Infaustus have been a bit quiet since their fourth album, Orthodoxyn, was released in 2007. All but deceased, the black/death metal beast has risen to inflict upon the world a thirty-three minute EP entitled Passing The Nekromanteion. And like the material released between ’98 and ’07, the four tracks, all between the 7- and 10-minute mark, are an unremittingly intense experience.
Opener ‘Amphessatamine Nexion’ begins with a wall of dissonance and feedback before the drums slam in and this ogre of a tune lunges and lurches its way through a heaving mass of deep, dark, and dense riffs, gurgles, growls, beats and beatings awash in suffocating atmospherics. There’s no let up with ‘The Precipice Where Souls Slither’, the track urging the grinding sharper and more perilous territories. ‘Yesh Li El Yadi’ and ‘Corrupted Epignosis’ are bleak, majestic and unrelentingly violent.
Epic in scope and precise in execution, there’s little to find fault with here. These pastten years have served the band well. The musicianship is outstanding; the song craft is second to none; and the production gives the material the weight that such a phenomenal EP deserves. Masters of their craft, Arkhon Infaustus’ return is more than welcome. If, like me, you hadn’t heard them before, now’s the time. There’s a lot to catch up on. You won’t regret it.
Track list:
- Amphessatamine Nexion
- The Precipice Where Souls Slither
- Yesh Li El Yadi
- Corrupted Epignosis
