originally written by Jim Brandon
As a reviewer, it’s easy to become jaded and bitter when inundated with stockpiled metal. When it comes to black metal, there’s a lot to be bitter about since among the genres, even though I find black metal to be a most awesome commodity, much of it is painfully generic and downright boring to the point of being unlistenable. This is why I appreciate Azaghal, because while this veteran band do nothing really spectacular on their newest disc, generic and boring this is not, and they put a lot of spice into the limited dish they serve.
I’ll be as blunt and brief as possible. Luciferin Valo is probably one of the sturdier no-frills BM albums you’ll find at the moment, and really, that’s all you need sometimes. The majority of the song tempos are fairly unchallenging mid-paced fare with brief passages where greater speeds are explored further, along with more lurching doom elements for contrast, and the rhythms are vibrant and intelligent, with outright blasts being kept to a minimum. Azaghal lay down a very riff-heavy disc which never lacks in energy, embraces rough melody with open arms, and takes great influence from classic European thrash acts such as Kreator, early Artillery, and Destruction, as well as black metal stalwarts Satyricon. The melodies are coarse yet modern and accessible enough to keep heads nodding and feet tapping without falling into a lull of bland tremolo, the rhythms are wisely-assembled and maintain enough unpredictability to keep things rolling along with many cool nuances to discover upon repeated listens. Production values are admirable with plenty of bottom-end accompanying a blistering guitar tone, and a good, grounded drum sound that doesn’t drown out the fuzzy bass guitar, or rasped vocals.
Why beat around the bush? Luciferin Valo is solid Finnish black metal with a groovy thrash edge. If you’ve collected any previous demos or splits, you already know what to expect. Much like the latest album from Sweden’s Heresi, I found Azaghal’s newest effort to be a good quick fix that is sure to please, but didn’t really bowl me over in any way at all. Just ballsy, unapologetic, good black metal, with no extreme or excessive trimmings and nothing to complain about, but also nothing to hand out awards to either. Satisfying.
