The Meads of Asphodel – The Murder of Jesus the Jew (2011)

As the first release we review of 2011 (for the USA), today we have a very special release: “The Murder of Jesus the Jew” by the ever surprising The Meads of Asphodel. Featuring their unique blend of Black Metal with countless other genres, the band manages to create their most impressive release to date.

Metatron and company return with their first full-length release since their epic “Damascus Steel” from 2005. “The Murder of Jesus the Jew” plays out in a very theatrical way, depicting in 12 songs the story of Yeshua. As you can expect the band uses their wide range of influences to craft a very unique sounding and appealing release that will blow your mind away (if you’ve never listened to the band).

Starting things of with a narrated intro, very characteristic of the band, things really pick up with the epic “My Psychotic Sand Deity”. This song starts with a monumental Black Metal opening in the vein of Emperor and most recently Ihsahn, only to fully explode into a very melancholic piece after few minutes featuring heavenly female vocals and very solid atmosphere, and then closing again in a furious manner.

Quickly exploding into electronic elements and later a full-fledged riffing assault we have “Apocalypse of Lazarus”. Immediately after we have a very ethereal and psychedelic anthem with “Addicted to God”, then it suddenly breaks out into a full-on Broadway musical style section, creating a very trippy feeling. This is pretty much what you can expect from the rest of the album; lush atmospheric/melodic passages with Black Metal assaults mixed in with some weirdness in the shape of folk/techno/you name it elements.

Musically, Metratron’s vocals are spot on when it comes to being harsh, weird and plain deranged. Handling the keyboards, guitars and additional vocals we have James Tait, a master in creating bizarre atmospheres that are highly effective. Most of the music greatly depends on the atmosphere and overall weirdness from the tunes, having a large folk/medieval influence the band quickly grabs your attention when they are not being 100% original.

Love them or hate them, The Meads of Asphodel are one of those bands that are always pushing the limit when it comes to crafting original (and different) music.  “The Murder of Jesus the Jew” is a very solid release that will surely get them more fans of their deranged and totally awesome Experimental Black Metal.

Release: January 11th, 2011

Country: UK