Sutekh Hexen - Larvae (2012)

Full Length, Handmade Birds Records
February 21st, 2012

Genre: Black Metal/Noise
Region: USA

Another disturbing and hazy excursion from Sutekh Hexen.

Larvae envelops the listener slowly, far more incremental and atmospheric than Luciform's brash attack. Isvar Savasana begins creeping with a hypnotic energy. Swirling and frigid, crackling and dragging through bleak static/noise before an ebbing wall of chaos falls upon you, turning into more disturbing scratchy tremolo riffs and fuzzed shrieking. This halts suddenly, morphing into ethereal chimes and a synth-like build only to jolt back into the dark fog of disarray: warped riffs and faint frantic drumming.

This fades and cycles slowly into the next track Lead Us In Warfare. Opening with an evil crawling distorted guitar and bass groove as thunder underneath with sharp discordant sounds circles endlessly. This leads to a break and then heavily distorted vocals with the the groove behind it, eventually shifting slightly in tone and rumbling forth like a fast approaching avalanche before leaving only the bass line. It's like a ritual being performed beneath an collapsing mountain.

Finally we reach the mammoth La Det Bli Lys (Let The Be Light). Cycling samples, creaking and scraping over top a cavernous static while glimpses of a clean guitar surface slowly. As this grows pained cries and whispers rear from the darkness as the background static mounts, and a spoken passage is thrust upward with the acoustic passage quickening. The atmosphere is thick at this point, trance-inducing and deep. This proceeds with various sounds peaking over top the eerie clean riffs with a constant cacophony of whispers and noise twisting in the background; it builds so well. A short gap forms as the oppression loses its grip and then a blast of chaos appears once again, spiraling through the entropic wall of sound while a slow groove gradually breaks through — a final crushing blow from this record entrancing you in the last 2 minutes.

Larvae is much different than their last album and shows off an even darker aspect of their sound, calculated and cold with moments of focused chaos. The vinyl for this album is long sold out but the CD is still available over at Handmade Birds, so pick it up while you can. This is the vinyl rip.

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