The dark and murky waters of Bestial Black Metal are sometimes difficult to tread, even for an avid devotee of the entire Black Metal genre as myself; the general consensus being, that, well, you can't really hear a lot of what's going on and find yourself struggling to concentrate to an almost maniacal degree to actually hear what riffs and notes are being played.

Though I and probably most other human beings would class Switzerland's ENERGUMEN as Bestial Black Metal, thankfully, their first demo release "Void Spiritualism" doesn't fall victim to the style's usual problems of incoherence and messiness and this is initially realized with the demo's opening track "Self Abortion Ritual", as it tears in with no regard and no mercy for any collateral damage caused and, to be honest, the same goes for following tracks "Invisible Spears Of Abomination" and "Ekliptik Manifestation Of Dominance".

The formula is apparent of each track on this, their first release: savage guitars and pulsating drums throughout and there seems to be no concern for slowing down or even changing up the formula slightly, which is of course, typical of bands flying under the Bestial Black Metal banner and you can tell that they do not care one iota. "Groove? Experimentation? Pah! Who are you, PINK FLOYD or some other such nonsense? "They seem to say. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

Unfortunately, for material in a genre such as this, there is little more to say other than how unrelenting and ferocious it is and that seems to cover the absolute basics. The production for a demo is very pristine and elucidated and it's obvious that, despite clearly wanting to have a raw "necro" sound to their songs, they also wanted to be able to be heard by whatever poor soul happens to fall into their spiritual void.

ENERGUMEN prove great promise with this, their first demo and although a little repetitive and stale at times, "Void Spiritualism" is definitely worth checking out.