BLOOD CEREMONY: LIVING WITH THE ANCIENTS (2011)
1) The Great God Pan; 2) Coven
Tree; 3) The Hermit; 4) My Demon Brother; 5) Morning Of The Magicians; 6)
Oliver Haddo; 7) Night Of Augury; 8) The Witch's Dance; 9) Daughter Of The Sun.
Odd enough, they're getting better at this. On
Blood Ceremony's second album, the riffs get darker, tighter, and a bit less
obviously derivative; the solos get ever so slightly more fluent and complex,
implying that they may have spent at
least a part of these three years actually sharpening their skills rather than
camping at the crossroads at midnight; and a couple of the songs even manage to
build up an impressive atmosphere. Well — I guess if you dabble in the black
arts long enough, there's an actual chance that people will gradually shift
their reaction from ironic snickering to nervous fidgeting.
One such song is ʽMy Demon Brotherʼ, where,
after the obligatory tritone-filled introduction, they offer us a cool key
change between verse and chorus — it's the kind of trick that worked really
well on Sabbath albums circa 1972-73, and it works fine here, provided you do
not actually follow the lyrics too closely (Geezer Butler would have probably
blushed at these inane lines, but then Geezer never actually wrote Satanist lyrics
— these guys do, and I hope Satan eventually gives Alia a good spanking for
tarnishing his reputation with this nonsense). It really only works for a
second before the spell is over, but that is already an improvement — from
simple mastery of form, they try to grapple some mastery of the spirit, and
deserve commendment.
I am a bit offended, though, at their
continuous involvement of poor Greek deities into this black magic thing. Come
on guys, just because the unfortunate Pan is pictured with horns on his head
does not mean that you can freely call him «the horned one» — what next, Moses?
He has nothing to do with witches or black magic, and contrary to rumors, his
altar does not «burn with pagan fear»,
and his image should be accompanied with flutes but not Sabbath-style riffs. We
admit, yes, that there are some nice sounding Sabbath-style riffs on ʽThe Great
God Panʼ (actually, though, the most recognizable riff is a variation on Alice
Cooper's ʽIt's Hot Tonightʼ), and that Sean Kennedy's ecstatic solo is better
than any guitar solo passage on the debut album (Satan is a good teacher, want
it or not), but leave Pan alone, dammit already.
On the other hand, their musical juxtaposition
of Tullian flute with Sabbath-y riffs may somewhat
justify this mixture — presenting everything as if from the misguided view of
an uninformed Christian, for whom «paganism» and «Satanism» are the same thing
and who views pagan deities as demons by definition. ʽCoven Treeʼ, where the
flute accompanies the dark riffs almost incessantly, is another good example
of this approach — "Saturnalia" = "infernal light" and
"roots of witchery", and so on.
The best song on the album is arguably ʽOliver
Haddoʼ, indicating that 20th century black arts intrigue these guys at least as
much as ancient Greek mythology, although it is not until the sixth minute that
the track really catches fire as Alia switches to pseudo-church organ and Sean
Kennedy starts tossing out a series of really passionate riffs, supported by
exceptionally heavy drumming. That is yet another moment where, for a brief
while, I am inclined to take Blood Ceremony seriously: not seriously enough to
become a Crowley adept — not even Led Zeppelin could make me do that, and Lord
knows they tried real hard — but seriously enough to think that they may ultimately do a good job in reviving
old-school doom metal.
Other than that, though, there is little to
add: in terms of basic ingredients, the formula remains the same, and you can
spot no more formal musical progress here than you can spot any serious deviation
from the song title formula. The added emotional nuances suffice to earn them
another optimistic thumbs up, but I honestly know not what else to
write, so let us stop right here.
Guitarist Sean Kennedy writes nearly all of the material, music and lyrics, so he'll probably be the one answering to Old Scratch
ReplyDeleteThe coda of Pan is rather weak - repeating the four descending notes BS used at the end of the eponymous song and a more than boring solo. The coda of Oliver Haddo is too repetitive to my taste as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm still not impressed by Alia O'Brian's vocals.
The third album is even better!
ReplyDelete