Blakk Old Blood — Wrath

Blakk Old Blood is a new black metal outfit from Switzerland. Although the band originally intended to release just a single demo and then split up, they decided to stick together to complete a series of releases based on the seven deadly sins. Their second release, an EP called Wrath was released independently on tape and CD late last year.

Where the band’s first demo entitled Pride incorporated some prideful melodies almost Finnish in nature, this release takes everything black and distills it down into a potent and primal force. The opener “Disaster of Worlds” brings to mind Damned in Black-era Immortal with its fast, razor-sharp riffing and other tracks like “Burning Churches” and “Might of Wrath” show off some Darkthrone or maybe Horna like tremolos. “Ancient Serpent” brings things to an earthshaking stomp for the beginning and end while in the middle falling back on the tried and tested tremolos and blasts. On the whole it’s a very convincing take on this style of old-school, hate-fueled black metal. Although it’s pretty one dimensional by nature, the runtime is just 25 minutes, which makes the attack manageable.

This style of black metal is a well-trodden path, and while Wrath doesn’t bring anything new to the table, this Swiss horde doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of. Even though this niche doesn’t allow much experimentation, Blakk Old Blood manage to keep things interesting with varied riffs and a particularly poisonous vocal performance. Although this EP doesn’t give the greatest indication of what to expect from future releases due to the band’s seven deadly sins theme, it does show that this young band has the technical chops and drive to go out there and bash some skulls. Wrath and Pride may have been among the easier of the deadly sins to capture musically, and I am interested to see how they tackle sins like Lust and Gluttony. While not necessarily a must-buy, Wrath does put Blakk Old Blood on the map, and it will be interesting to see how they progress.