VENTR is a Black Metal band out of Portugal, which is a bit of a hotbed for the scene at the moment. Metal Archives currently shows 279 active Black Metal bands in Portugal, which doesn't include VENTR itself, so we know the count is under-represented by at least one. With a population of over 10.28 million, that's a ratio of one Black Metal band for every 36,714 residents, btw. I don't know, just seems significant. At any rate, on October 9, 2020 VENTR released their debut EP, "Numinous Negativity," through Signal Rex. It comprises four track and clocks out at twenty-five minutes. And that, my friends, is about all the intel I have for you on VENTR.

Thematically, the album is exactly as the titles signpost - dark worship stuff. Musically, it's lo-fi, raw black metal with deep guttural vocals. The drums and bass are characteristically muted and there's loads of repetitive, tantric tremolo happening. Interestingly, the title track is instrumental and by far the shortest track on the EP. It's also the most nuanced and intriguing.

The fact that this is a stripped down, bleak Black Metal offering will appeal to people who love the genre. It fits right in the whole Black Metal ritual shamanistic line. If you're looking for something innovative, something that you haven't heard before, some new twist on the genre, this isn't it. It's good stuff for what it is, but it is what it is. How's that for some noncommittal circular reasoning? Missed my calling in politics.

What else can I tell you? The album cover is dark enough with a black and white skull and necrotic etchings. Seems like a cross between an H.P. Lovecraft abomination that crawled out of that well where the meteor landed and a briar patch in the winter . . . with a rat thrown in just for good measure. So, lots of evil iconography which ties in well with the overall theme of dark veneration.

Overall, "Numinous Negativity" isn't a bad piece, but it's not great either. Musically, speaking, it's middle of the road; lyrically and thematically, it seems to hit the mark for dark, evil devotion.