Nunfuckritual — In Bondage Of The Serpent
The first track "Theotokos" features a very diluted, dirty and slow riffing that reminds me a bit of Catacombs, even though the sounds here are raw and nasty. It's depressive and doomish black metal, with filtered and redundant vocals that chant along guitar riffs, creating a good sense of impending doom and cacophony.
Second track "Komodo Dragon, Mother Queen" is more of the same and it indulges even more in a painful repetition that calls to mind the early and more minimal Darkthrone. Keyboards here add a nice eerie touch and vocals soon become very low pitch, recited and chanted. Creepy!
Track number three "Christokos" mixes what sounds like samples from a shipwreck with the usual filthy guitar droning riffs, slow, simple and incessant drumming and somewhat restrained growling vocals. Keyboards do a great job once again, and I must compliment Nunfuckritual for succeeding in something that often renders metal albums cheesy and unbearable.
The fourth track "Cursed Virgin, Pregnant Whore" tortures us with very redundant guitar drones for something like two minutes before the track actually kicks in. While the sounds per se are good, this might be annoying and boring for some people. I don't know what to say, but unfortunately it's the 2010s and I guess metal has to sound a bit like this now. Though this track does feature more interesting and satisfying keyboard work, which at this point it safe to say my favourite thing about the album as a whole
"Parthenogen" and title track "In Bondage Of The Serpent" are pretty much in the same spirit, adding nothing but length and (heavy) weight to the bulk of this CD.
In the end I’m not completely satisfied with this record. I reckon that it features many good elements that I usually appreciate: the quality of sound is filthy enough, the vocals are great and very well effected, the cacophony is there where it should be, it even has some great samples and keyboards.. but somehow something is missing. Maybe it's the general feeling that all this raw, brutal, nasty filthiness is a bit artificial? I'm not sure.
Anyway, despite the horrible cover artwork, "In Bondage Of The Serpent" is an ok album. Lots of people will find it unnecessarily boring in its indulgence in its Sunn O))) like droning patterns, but at it’s core the tracks are good black metal. If there's a second album by NunFuckRitual, I’m sure it will be at least interesting.