Of Human Bondage

The Goat Sessions Vol. II: Antichristendom, A Revelation

Year 2006
Genre: Black Metal
Country :Canada

Tracklist:
1. With Judas Align 5:05
2. As the Cross Turns 6:02
3. Sacrosanct Inversion Ritual 5:20
4. Faith be Damned 3:05
5. Long For the Great Darkness 7:31
6. Pain is God 4:03
7. Beyond the Veil 3:13
8. Under the Banner of Sulfurous Winds 2:50
9. Meditations in Occult Static 3:55
Total playing time: 41:04

Wehttam Neseirf – strings, vocals
Ekim Nessalk – strings, vocals
Yroc - drums

Of Human Bondage is a Canadian black metal trio. 'The Goat Sessions Vol. II: Antichristendom, A Revelation' is their second full-length CD. It is unclear when the third part of this trilogy will be released. Between the first and the second part is a period of five years.

The CD sounds solid and the production is downright good. The musicians are a bit shaky (too much alcohol or just not enough?). This is very obvious during the drumming of the slower songs. I guess that can be solved by practicing a bit more. One of the qualities of this band is that they are not afraid to experiment. For example, 'Long For The Great Darkness' has a disturbing and atmospheric ending. I hear powerful riffs and obstinate drumming rhythms, spoken words lyrics, death grunts and black metal screams. One can clearly hear that this band is not just influenced by black metal bands only. From the endless forests of the northern Canadian provinces comes an icy cold wind that pushes along a black metal front that rages like tens of thousands of sinister demons from hell. Not for the faint hearted.

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Yes, those names are merely the band members' real names spelled backwards. Oh well, beats actually making making an effort to conjure up some bullshit pseudo-demonic gibberish like “Graalzebuth” or “Morconthragbz” and pretend it actually means something. This bit of not-very-amusing ponderance aside, according to Of Human Bondage's bio, it's something of an unholy miracle that this album sounds as great as it does. It seems these guys rather enjoy consuming large amounts of mind-altering substances, which sometimes leads to genius, but more often results in bands creating a pile of shit which their drug-addled senses somehow convince them is actually music. The latter result is nowhere to be heard on this CD.

Of Human Bondage plays an extremely varied form of black metal. Rather than sticking to a single sub-subgenre, they're able to swing wildly from what I tend to call “Street” BM – a style exemplified by the likes of Craft and newer Darkthrone – to a much more epic, contemplative style more in line with the likes of Shining, to fast intense black metal violence, and a smattering of bizarre experimental noise passages. The latter two are represented by parts of “Long for the Great Darkness”, which also features some hilarious samples of televangelists (well, that's what it sounds like) and the outro “Meditations in Occult Static”. If I had to pick a standout track amidst all this, it'd probably have to be the 6-minute epic “As The Cross Turns”, which just crushes everything in it's path.

This is unquestionably classic black metal fuelled by intelligent musicianship and more than a little primitive hatred. Never mind the aforementioned band references though, they're simply basic comparisons designed to give you a vague idea of what to expect. There's no plagiarism going on here. Despite only being 40 minutes long, this is a very dense album which takes multiple spins to fully appreciate. The aesthetic qualities are well chosen – it's raw, but very balanced in the mix. Drums are quite faded and mostly serve as a purely rhythmic instrument, never dominating anything else, while the vocals mostly crackle away under the massive wall guitar static.

Complemented with some excellent artwork and well-written lyrics, this is a top-notch release deserving some serious attention. Releases like this one remind me why I still pay attention to underground black metal, because there's still great stuff being released amidst all the cloning technology” Burzum-wannabe crap. With the third installment of the 'Goat Sessions' trilogy still to come, I can // http://www.diabolicalconquest.com/