ENTHRONED

With a career that stretches back to the early '90s, ENTHRONED are one of European black metal's most enduring bands. Permanently entrenched in occultism and extremity, they have produced a handful of albums over the years that have been sturdy benchmarks for the genre's militant wing. Fast, furious and hostile, the likes of 2001's "Armoured Bestial Hell" and 2004's "XES Haereticum" have stuck rigidly and proudly to a vicious, grimly atmospheric recipe, ensuring that the Belgians have become a failsafe source of unholy venom in a similar musical vein to MARDUK, GORGOROTH and 1349, but distinctive enough to hold their own in an increasingly crowded marketplace. "Ashspawn" is only the band's second album in a decade, but as avatars for myopic purity, ENTHRONED are an established, serious business, and this is a record that makes no apologies for its adherence to an ancient, diehard code of conduct.

Longtime leader Nornagest is one of black metal's great immovable objects, and on his band's 12th full-length he comes across as a flame-eyed zealot in thrall to the dark side's nefarious might. Billed as "a weapon of transformation, forged in fire and darkness," "Ashspawn" is an uncompromising blast of ritualistic hostility, with songs that hurtle along at hair-raising speeds and with maximum aggression. Those seeking a more overtly cerebral or avant-garde approach to contemporary black metal may be disappointed, but in terms of scabrous brutality and the kind of dense, eerie clangor that facilitates spiritual catharsis and frenzied headbanging, this is an unequivocally potent display of grim intent.

The opening "Crawling Temples" lays down a blueprint from which ENTHRONED never waver. Blastbeats swarm like a storm of marauding scalpels, riffs churn with utmost dissonance and disgust, and Nornagest's commanding bellow rises from the chaos like the voice of Beelzebub himself. Any melodic elements that do bubble to the surface are shrouded in ghoulish impenetrability, as if the urge to satisfy the listener's requirements are secondary to a wholly genuine desire to summon dark forces. For many, this is exactly what black metal bands are supposed to sound like, and at their most effective, ENTHRONED are as convincing as any of their more high-profile peers.

The strongest moments are the most adventurous. "Stillborn Litany" is a wicked, wayward indulgence: seven minutes of primitive but nuanced riffs that swirl malevolently, growing more hypnotic and unnerving as the seconds tick away. There is something brilliantly remorseless about the Belgians' execution. It is as if time is running out and ENTHRONED are sprinting ahead of its inexorable crawl, doggedly pursuing their goals with every intention of making the mortal world collapse in on itself. Similarly, "Ashen Advocacy" is an extended act of blasphemous showboating with an icy atmosphere that drives everything forward at a deathly slow pace, the simplicity of the riffs standing in stark contrast to a strange, scattershot structure that has more than a little MAYHEM in its DNA. Greatly enhanced by a clever production that revels in rawness while sounding like the big-budget end of all things, "Ashspawn" is considerably more progressive than many similar recent releases, but even deviations from the norm are delivered with a sledgehammer. Shorter, more violent offerings like "Basilisk Triumphant" and "Raviasamin" get to the point with a greater sense of urgency, but the callous aura that has driven ENTHRONED through 30 years of active service is so deeply ingrained in their collective soul that "Ashspawn" never loses its sense of anti-human otherness. There are more mind-expanding and imaginative voices operating within black metal today, but few who stick to the script with such unwavering commitment.