Style: Black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Stand tall and stare into the face of god, heed my call oh ye of heathen blood.
Thoughts: I had no idea that this band existed until just a few months ago. I found myself scrolling through several record labels inventories and found this on Osmose records site. For whatever reason the cover stood out to me so I gave it a listen.
Ba'a play a sort of long form black metal. There are essentially only four songs on this record, with an intro and an outro sandwiching the album as a whole. The end result is 40 minutes of incredibly intense, blast beat driven, spite driven black metal.
That all sounds incredibly generic when written out like that, and to a certain extent Ba'a does not bring anything new to the table. However, what they do bring is an incredibly competent entry into the black metal field that is executed with such precision and skill that it is nearly impossible for me to ignore this.
The primary thing for any album is the riffs, and boy do Ba'a bring the riffs. They are fast and relentless, focusing on tremolo picked semi melodic sections of songs that progress over the lengthy run time of these songs.
Nothing is overly complex in the way that the songs are written, but oh man do they deliver on the intensity. Somehow the band has picked exactly the right note to play at the right moment at nearly all points of this forty minute journey. This combined with the constant blasting makes for an acutely compelling listen.
This then leads the vocals. They are provided by none other than RMS Hreidmarr. This gentleman has provided vocals for several of my favorite French bands in the past. It's his vocals that bring this music from intense to overwhelming. His delivery is flawless and his venomous voice is second to none when it comes to delivering potent vocals. Elite is the only word that applies here.
Ba'a turned out to be a wonderful surprise. It's the perfect set of circumstances. A new band, the record was inexpensive and I enjoy the hell out of it. Excellent stuff.
Written May 9th 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment