From Bandcamp, “Born of the ashes of Roman Empire, pagan lust for life and philosophical opulence, then demeaned and mortified by the fathers of the one true god. Centuries lasting like the last dream before awakening. PATRISTIC is the soundtrack of the age of quiet chaos between the classic world, paganism and the impending shadow of the cross.” The album has seven songs…two main ones, and the first is divided into two parts, and the second is divided into four. “A Vinculis Soluta I” is first. The opening tones are clean, dark and tense, and what follows is a crushing slow sound. It morphs from a sort of Doom Death into Black Metal and then toggles back and forth. The intensity is off the charts however.

Part two of the opening song is just as vile, although there are other elements at foot with the thick riffs, drums, and harsh vocals…namely some moments of reprieve. They don’t offer much solace however, because they are short lived and the reverberation of the previous sound still tastes on your tongue. The second and final song is divided into four movements. The first has some clean, tense tones that sound like you overturned a nest of killer bees and are waiting for them to respond. Some filthier tones enter and blacken the sky, like a storm rolling in without warning. In this largely instrumental song, you can easily get a sense of the band’s strong musicianship.

The second movement also begins with clean tones, but the song swells like a water balloon in the hot sun, ready to burst. It teeters there on the very edge of this explosion for much of the song, offering some chaotic moments along the way. The third movement features some lighter tones out of the gate, but they are almost like walking the long path to Hell….uneventful at first, but you know something is coming. It swells to the point of the wheels nearly coming off the speeding vehicle, but somehow, the band manages to maintain control. The final movement is more controlled, bud say that loosely. There is still a lot of chaos, but don’t let the band trick fool you into thinking they don’t always maintain control.

The best part about the band and the music, besides the black stains throughout it, is that the band gives you the illusion that they are anything goes…but that couldn’t be more wrong. Each deadly step is calculated, and performed with surgical precision. Their mashup of Death and Black metal is done with modern tendencies, even going some places that others refuse to explore, while they maintain the strong roots of Extreme Metal.