originally written by Jim Brandon
Sometimes I think many of these one-man black metal projects are just entirely too self-absorbed for their own good. I mean really, if your souls are so diminished and your hearts turned into so much misanthropic ice, then why even bother recording and releasing your art since you hate everyone so much? Lucky for me Psalm II: Infusco Ignis by Sweden’s Heresi, masterminded by former Ondskapt member Skamfer, isn’t an entirely egotistical or overly conceptualized affair. Actually, I don’t encounter many one-man projects that apply such a simple, no frills aesthetic to their music, so this was kind of refreshing in a way, for a while.
Regardless of the fact that Skamfer was sent to a number of mental institutions over a few years time for various psychological ailments, and still highly endorses debauchery and decadence of all kinds to the point of excess, or death, his metal ain’t half bad, yet absolutely nothing to write home about. It’s fairly standard, older Satyricon-ish fare brought up to date, with hints of Keep Of Kalessin’s Agnen: A Journey Through The Dark era here and there, but slightly slower. There’s not a whole lot of irritating one-note tremolo, impossible to follow vocal patterns, or painful distortion to be suffered through. At a running length of just under half an hour between five tracks, this is a compact, easy to listen to little disc.
The first two songs, “Liotte” and “Bevingad Och Försedd Med Horn” are both rather fast, busily-riffed tunes that display a keen sense of both melody, fury, and structure, and gets the blood pumping well for starters. Middle track “Dionysesinitiationen” (I’m so glad I only have to type that once) is a lurching doom number that still keeps a good level of vibrancy going so no momentum is lost, and helps break things up a little bit in a complementary way. “Prosairesis” is a rather plain, uneventful tune, thrashing along with the bite of old Bathory, and the all-or-nothing title track closes with shades of Marduk’s La Grande Danse Macabre showing through with the cymbal and blast arrangements to end the disc on a strong, if rather unspectacular note. Pretty cool stuff, but nothing you haven’t heard before from the heavyweights of the scene.
This is inoffensive, basic Swedish black metal, with very good, earthy production, vocals in the mid-ranged growl realm as opposed to harsh screeching, and respectable technical ability shown from start to finish. The riffs are rather appealing and catchy, the artwork looks sweet (kudos go out to Wrest of Leviathan for that), and honestly, there’s not much here to neither praise highly, nor look down upon sourly. If you have a few spare bucks to spend on a solid, yet ultimately uneventful piece of decent black metal art that breaks no boundaries in any way, then try Heresi on for size if you’re in the mood to bang thy head a while. If standard, average-to-good metal of this sort just doesn’t do it for you anymore, no problem, there’s always Anaal Nathrakh, or Xasthur. HydraHead Records, I admire you for giving this a chance. Respect.
