It’s common to think that Second Wave of Black Metal was a European phenomenon in the 90s due the great number of acts raising from the underground, but’s a mistake: the genre had representants in many countries, as on Japan with SIGH, Brazil with SONGE D’ENFER, and on USA as well. On this last one, many bands were born from musicians that came from Death Metal scene, as ABSU. But one of the pioneers of Black Metal on USA is PROFANATICA that is famous (and infamous) for the EP “Weeping in Heaven” and the split “Tormenting Holy Flesh/Ola de Violencia” (with MASACRE), but that ceased to exist on 1992, and returned from the pits of Hell on 2001, and since then is active.

As another blasphemous shot, here is the EP “Wreathed in Dead Angels”. As an ancient band into the genre, don’t expect from the something clean and defined, because they’re true to themselves, what means that the band uses rough instrumental tunes to increase its aggressive appeal, but of course they learned that something understandable would make miracles, and it’s precisely what is presented: nasty tunes with a good mixing and mastering, so it’s not hard to understand what’s being played, but that keeps the lo-fi approach usual for the band.

As everyone knows, the three original members of PROFANATICA are founding members of INCANTATION as well, and left it due artistical differences. It means that some Death Metal features are heard on the mix (as the death growls during some slow-paced moments), but of course the band focus on a form of Old School USA Black Metal that they helped to create, with traces inherited from Hardcore (as heard on “The Sith Hour”), and a very good set of rhythmic shifts, with abrasive guitar riffs and arrangements, and contrasts between growls and shrieks. Lyrically, prepared for some extreme blasphemous themes, and extreme as the band uses since its past, but in some moments, they seem to create a subjective concept.

Listening to “Wreathed in Dead Angels” to some younger fans can be hard, but for those that knows what means to be on Old School Black Metal ways, songs as “Hung in Golgatha”, “The Sixth Hour”, “Descent from the Cross”, “The Entombment”, “Wreathed in Dead Angels” and “By Thine Agony” will shows why PROFANATICA’s name is famous in the underground, and why the shocked many fans in the 90s (and still shocks today). It’s a classic Black Metal compendium, showing the DNA of USA Black Metal School.

For the puritans, “Wreathed in Dead Angels” will cause extreme disgust. For Black Metal fans that know what the genre is about, PROFANATICA isn’t only an icon, but a band that deserves tons of respect, and to be heard.