Aetherius Obscuritas - Black Medicine / Fekete Orvossag (2009)

Aetherius Obscuritas presents us their second release of majestic Black Metal that will surely put the on the map. This Hungarian band show they are a force to be reckoned by displaying brutal, but yet melodic, Black Metal in 11 tracks of pure evil.

The band shows a level of musical maturity that few young bands have. Mainly because Arkhorrl, the mastermind behind this evil entity, has been dissecting most major Black Metal bands and taking the best elements of each one of them, and improving over time (and 4 previous releases) has now achieved a brilliant sound that reminds you of all time greats like Marduk, Satyricon and Immortal, but has managed to make it his own adding his own twists and turns to the music.

“Black Medicine” features a galore of tremolo picking riffs and solos that will peal the skin off the bones of the weak, but it never goes overboard in the sense of using the same riff for the whole song. The songs brilliantly transition within whirlwind hellish sections to more melodic sections that give the listener a great listening experience, and time to snap his neck back into place, before the next aural assault is launched.

The vocals are stellar and the variations between harsh screams of pain, to growls and clean vocals, are very well written and fitted into the music. Backed by a very solid production the guitar distortion sounds grim but not ‘toilet produced’ style, keeping the whole eerie Black Metal sound while still sounding professional and enjoyable.

The album features 2 cover songs, and while the Marduk cover is pretty good; the Running Wild cover is just dreadful in my opinion, it’s still something ‘new’. Overall “Black Medicine” is  one of the sleeper Black Metal albums that will make my top 10 of the year list for sure, so if you are into Black Metal with some production values, get this album right now.

Release: October 27th, 2009

Country: USA