IRAE

There is a fine line between so-called "raw" black metal and, with the greatest of respect, unlistenable horseshit. A direct descendant of DARKTHRONE's ruthlessly lo-fi "Under A Funeral Moon", this subgenre often has a strong whiff of The Emperor's New Clothes about it, and yet all the cynicism in the world can't undermine the fact that IRAE are very much the real deal. Wildly prolific and resolutely immune to the lure of modern technology, the Portuguese enigma has done wonders for his native underground scene and, via albums like 2020's "Lurking in the Depths", he has presented some pretty convincing evidence that music this primitive and abrasive can wield great power.

Only the fifth full-length IRAE album in 20 years (this guy loves a split release),  "Assim na Terra como no Inferno" is arguably too sonically full to truly be regarded as raw black metal, but opener "V Caminhv Primitiv" is an untamed blur of distortion and cavernous echo, nonetheless. IRAE's humbly stated debt to second wave black metal is written through every riff here, and the melodies cut through the clangor from the start, elevating an otherwise impenetrable din into otherworldly realms. The noise-to-riffs ratio leans defiantly one way on "Pvr Tempvz de Decadênzia", wherein a droning, two-note riff underpins a whole shit-ton of freeform cacophony. "Relíqvia de Espinhvz" is crazier still: at times, the music disappears completely, leaving only a menacing haze of hisses and howls. As the demented fog clears, however, spiraling melodic motifs and ramshackle blastbeats emerge to form something more familiar, but no less disorientating.

There is method in IRAE's madness, never clearer than on "Simbolos do Império". A straightforwardly great black metal song, with a near-chewable sense of the epic, it sidesteps the rest of the album's artful ugliness and hits harder as a result. The closing "Enforcamento" is similarly unencumbered by experimental mischief and ends with a particularly mesmerizing and profoundly melancholy melody: further proof of IRAE's ambiguous relationship with underground purity. Whatever it is that's going on here, it transcends the "raw" tag with ease, and sounds like a strong addition to a rapidly expanding legacy. Parabéns!