MYSTERION – The Sacral Chamber CDEP
Karge Welten Kunstverlag
Sometimes I’m asked where do I find all these sick twisted bands from places so far out of the mainstream norm not even the Twilight Zone has an address for em. Well ya know sometimes you’ve gotta look deep inside those dark crevasses like this band from Germany. The Sacral Chamber is their debut release and even though it’s an EP there’s still alot on here to excite even the most jaded of black metal fans. First off this release is separated into three parts each having a short intro then followed by two cuts. The opening “Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the End” starts off with the sound of a thunderstorm breaking overhead and the guitarist enters in by playing a somber passage and then you’re hit by lightening as in the first actual cut “Death in the Circle of Candles”. Right off the bat MYSTERION lets you know that they’re not your typical German black metal army. These guys are looking north to their Scandinavian dark brothers. This chapter ends with “The Cold Mist” which mixes pagan choir choruses over a depressive lead vocal.
“Chapter 2 – Only the Dead Know the Secret” is another somber intro with keyboards laying on a melodic drone for two minutes until MARDUK walks into the room. “The Eye of the Devil” is a pure Panzer Division Marduk knockoff that even sticks within the regulated time limit of those Swede’s previous masterpiece. The vocalist even sounds like Legion which might tick off some people but hey these guys are German so cut em a break. The next cut “Deadly Silent” balances on the brink of Eastern European Post black metal and more of the melodic variety. Do you recognize a pattern here? “Chapter 3 – Walk Though the Open Gates” is short with monster growls and atmospheric keys and then MAYHEM steps through the door on the cuts “Battle with the King of Dead” and “The Truth is now Revealed”. This time the vocalist, Nephilim, hands us a dead on Atilla Csihar imitation while the rest of the performers play their parts well dropping out of character just enough to keep everything from sounding too copycat.
You outside the box nose in the air too kvlt to know your ass from a hole in the ground types might say that MYSTERION sounds like a band caught in the undertow of black metal’s second wave. If certain circumstances were also at hand like if The Sacral Chamber was being pushed by a more mainstream label with full page ads and magazine quotes then I’d agree to a point. But that’s not the case and secondly the way this was crafted together in the chapter’s sequencing shows the minimalist theory is far from true. What I do hear is something I already mentioned. This is a balancing act by a band trying to place as much of itself onto an already worn template. I give em credit for not following along like sheep since the slaughterhouse is already full with bands like that.
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