Style: black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: sorrow, loss, horrors that should not be
Thoughts: Black metal is many things... but the thing that runs through nearly all of the genre is hatred. What the focus of that hate is differs from band to band, but it is central and some may argue essential to the genre. Blood Red Fog channels this emotion in some of the purest ways that I have heard in a long while.
It's not that I haven't heard music like this before, quite the contrary. On its surface Thanatotic Supremacy is nothing more than a typical black metal album. It has the rough production, it has the tremolo riffs, it has fast drums, and howling vocals. It's all here. What makes this album stand out - at least for me - is the delivery.
Blood Red Fog takes these basic elements and combines them in ways that I seldom hear. The conviction and consistency that the music has is rare in the genre. This is a band that is obviously not just going through the motions... there is a deep seeded hatred or even longing for something unspoken.
These emotions bleed through in every note, every word howled, every drum beat. The music is steeped in it. Passage after passage will grab my attention in ways that typical black metal rarely does. There is something more going on here than simply writing black metal by the numbers. This music encapsulates everything that makes the genre stand out amongst the multitude of metal sub genres.
Blood Red Fog remains a hit and miss project for me. Most of their albums do absolutely nothing for me, however there are a few that stand out - Thanatotic Supremacy is amongst those. It takes typical songwriting and infuses it with such deep rooted emotions that it's impossible for me to ignore. Great stuff.
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