Creating effective and compelling blackened death metal presents a series of challenges. How do you take black metal's focus on atmosphere and combine it with death metal's penchant for technique? Lots of bands do it well, sure. But many more do it in a way that's thoroughly forgettable and boring. That is definitely not the case for Indiana's Karkosa. As a listen to the band's new album, Esoterrorcult, makes clear, Karkosa talent for dark evocations is well-matched with its high level of skilled brutality.
It's an aggressive mixture that's been thoroughly tread in the past, particularly by Hate, Belphegor, and especially Behemoth from Pandemonic Incantations and onward. Still, Karkosa immediately blazes its own path on "Ensorcelled Spirits", a song that recalls the bands I just mentioned, along with some Anthems-era Emperor for good measure. But then there's elements that also hits the same as bands like Origin, particularly when the sweep picking comes in. This, along with a clean vocal section, allows the band to craft a set of divinations like few others can.
From there, the album simply delivers one punishment after another. The rousing "Poison of God" allows guitarists Brenton and Alden to show off all manner of tricks, including some nasty chugging techniques. On "Tomb of Hiram Abiff", you can really hear drummer Ian Lemberg display his prowess behind the kit, which comes in again for the extra-crushing "Dominae Sanctum".
The ambient "Axis Mundi" gives the listener a brief respite before hurling them into the maelstrom of "Remnants of Creation", which shows the band at perhaps its most ferocious. It's also the closest the band comes up to absolute tech-death insanity, albeit for some of the ominous guitar riffs that keep it in black metal territory. As with the rest of the album, vocalist Rafael Palacios commands the mic here with all manner of extreme metal methods: lows, highs, growls, screams, it's all here.
"Cyclopean Gateway" has an almost progressive flavor, as it brings in some moods and tempos that are absent across the rest of the album. Meanwhile, "Shattered Throne" simply overwhelms the listener with Ian's double-kick attack that comes in at the 2:35 mark. This section is accompanied by riffs more reminiscent of blue-cover bands like Dissection and Sacramentum, as their eerie melodicism reminds me of that special brand of black metal art.
I should admit that by the time I got to "The Freezing Shadows of the Eternal Winter", I was starting to grow weary of the band's established sound, but then they suddenly diverted halfway through the song and pulled the sound back to just vocals and quietly strummed guitars. This brought in some dramatic tension that snapped me back to attention. It also put me in the perfect mindset for the return to unrelenting power on "Angelus Ejectiones".
So while Karkosa's style isn't new, they put an excellent spin on it and have created a genuinely thrilling listen on Esoterrorcult. If you're in the mood for ominous excitement, I think it's time you entered the cult yourself.
