RENUNCIATION describe themselves as a Desecrative Black Metal band from Moscow who were formed in 2019.  Autelmorte is their debut album and is an independent release.

Though they're described as Black Metal, RENUNCIATION combine Death Metal, Tech Metal, Black Metal and Progressive Metal into a cacophonous mixer and Autelmorte is the result.

"Ariopolis" (A city where Ariel (an Angel though often a Demon) is worshipped) kicks it all off with a Tech Metal riff over which a MASTODON-ish spoken vocal line plays across. It's not long before the Black Metal shrieks of Demether bring the track into familiar territory. Then it changes again into a sublime clean guitar passage before it returns to the Black/Tech Metal heavy riffing with a great chorus.

"Earth's turned into a great city of sin
The city of ulcers, shit-exuding
In a servile abeyance of mercy and Sal.
Vegetative and lazarus thralls
We live in a place
Full of disgrace
Our accurst
Ariopolis!"

It's a furious pummelling opening track and the final CAVALERA like screams of "Ariopolis" ends the track in epic style. For fans of deep lyricism, you may need to bring a dictionary as there's a lot of terminology to decipher but it shows a depth that I find is often lacking in this type of music and at least the vocals and production are nice and tight in the mix.

"To Separate The Soul From Flesh" is the first single with fuzzy Black Metal guitar and a bass riff coalescing into a thrashing track of power and aggression where the intensity of the track keeps the interest high. A mix of gruff, Death Metal and Black Metal screams adds vocal variety and all in all it's a furious high octane unrelenting beast of a track.

One of my favourite tracks is "Empty Hell for Empty Shells" which changes pace to a lumbering doomy riff with a catchy verse:

"This is not war, no allies and no captives
This is a conflict of ways to exist
Essence of change, everything that is active
Versus the force that inhibits all that resists"

Some spoken Russian adds a nice change to the vocals and the lumbering riff gives way to a thrashy riff and then veers off into a more melodic vein before returning to the thrashier aspect of the track. The song then ends on the lumbering riff with a solemn lead playing over the top. It's a great track and again engages your interest.

The most unexpected "When Time Disappears" which is sung in Russian opens with a funky jazzy feel which you don't expect in this type of music. Of course it speeds into a more traditional metal track shortly afterwards and ends on an echoey guitar refrain.

After the instrumental and frankly unremarkable and slightly repetitive "Hanlon's Razor",  "Kugelblitz" ends the album on a definite bang with a sonic cacophony of chaos of high speed Black Metal riffs, spoken word and screams.

In less than 40 minutes RENUNCIATION have certainly made a mark and as a debut album this does impress with its savagery, dark lyricism and combination of Black/Tech/Death Metal. It's very well produced and though I'm not the greatest fan of this style of music, it's certainly one of the best albums of this type that I've heard and I would definitely listen to it again.