Blood Chalice — The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism

The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism is the second full-length album from Blood Chalice- a brutally satanic blacked death/ prime-evil war metal project from Finland. It’s a twelve-track affair, which aptly blends more raging-yet-precise speeding battering’s, with mid-pace pummelling and even brief runs into tarry doom.  All finished off with unholy guttural barks ‘n’ gurgles, and moments of blacked atmospheric/ ritual unease.

Blood Chalice are a four-piece from Pori, Satakunta on the western coast of Finland. They have been active since 2015- releasing a demo in 2016, and going on to release their first full-length Sepulchral Chants of Self-Destruction in 2017. This new album is on Finland’s Werewolf Records- with the CD and tape version of the album out now, and the LP version appearing down the line.

The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism has a total runtime of just under forty minutes- and over its twelve tracks it offers up a fair bit of variation in pace, but throughout the feeling of blacked brutality and unease is keen & wholly present. The album kicks off with “The Blacked Mass”- it opens with a ragging galloping riff that's covered in rapid barks  'n' shrieks, then drops into mid-paced prime evil chug 'n' moody snare snap. Before speeding off again in a manic blacked manner, then dipping into shadowy unease as the track resolves.

As we go through the album we have the blacked roar, roast & chugging riff craft meets deep gurgling barks of “Matanbuchus”. There is the battering drums-meets-almost blacked grind-core of the title track, which later on shifts into moments crawling doom- all topped with some of the deepest and most evil barks ‘n’ gurgles ever. We have machine gun prime evil death rush of “From the Grave of Livyatan” which features some neat backing shout/ charts in its first half, then a truly blackly scalding solo. The album plays out with “The Rise of Iconoclast” which switches between dark ‘n’ bounding chugs and prime evil speed-outs- all topped with moments of coldly simmering atmospherics, and a sudden blacked noise raise just as the album plays out.

The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism stands as a consistent and varied example of the blacked metal/ war metal form- which is always bloodily gushing with satanic rage, spit, and prime evil unease.