Wrath of Darkness

Having heard Wrathprayer's debut full-length five years ago, I was eager to see what they put together on this split with fellow bullet-belted Chileans Force of Darkness. Chilean black metal rarely comes with the subtlety that bands of other countries can infuse into their versions of black metal, but both bands' brazen, thrash-influenced styles have a charm that is all their own. Wrathprayer kicks off the show with an atmospheric track followed by noisy thrashing, with blocky riffs and deep growling vocals of a type that calls to mind old extreme metal. Band leader God of Torment gets the most attention in the mix, but the sheer chaotic noisiness of the drums stand out too. The soloing does not; it sounds pretty good, but is relegated to a corner of the mix that reduces it to a mouse-like squeaking. Bridged by sampled screams of horror and agony from an anonymous crowd, De Profundis moves to a more blackened sound, with plenty of blastbeats broken up by guitar-only breaks that keep it interesting. I hadn't heard of Force of Darkness before, but their retro-black blackened thrash look is a true indicator of the music you get. With a faster and cleaner attack than their splitmates, this band prefers blindingly fast, old-school thrashing to atmospheric evil. Bassist Nabucodonosor III supplies the vocals, a hoarse shout reminiscent of Kreator's Mille Petrozza. The rhythms are direct and furious, and on Nunc Scio Tenebris Lux, the soloing gets better mixing than corresponding solos on the Wrathprayer tracks. The first two of the Force of Darkness tracks are shorter than Wrathprayer's, but The Order, one of my favorite tracks on the album, throws seven minutes of nonstop fury at the listener with a lot of variety to the riffing, including a nice ending solo. I think the Force of Darkness tracks come off as the better ones on this album but Wrathprayer is quite decent on here as well. Fans of Chilean black metal won't be disappointed with Wrath of Darkness. Bandcamp: https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/wrath-of-darkness.