Bok

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Band(s): Bok
Label(s): Self-Released
Release Format(s): Cassette, Demo
Release Year: 2024
Review Date: October 10, 2024
Author(s): FelixS

Although the musician behind this new Dutch Black Metal band gained his experience in bands like Göll and Experimentum, with Bok he takes all the reins in his own hands. Not only does MVG play all the instruments himself and provide it with vocals too, the production of this attractively designed demo tape is also entirely his own creation. All thirteen copies of this demo are sleeved in a unique cover made from old bibles, and remarkably: with all of them having a different portrait on the front. This also provides a clear indication of what MVG is agitating against with this latest musical creation; institutional religion is a very obvious thorn in his side…

But whereas the impetus behind the music may be very much traditional, the music certainly is not. At least, not across the whole board. The basis of the music may consist of the classical building blocks of the genre, but MVG certainly does not limit itself to just that. Besides samples of spoken words and Gregorian Hildegard von Bingen-like chanting, it is mainly a fairly clear Deathrock and Darkwave atmosphere that is woven through the music. This manifests itself not only in the spacey passages or the almost entirely electronically conceived closing track ‘As Black Willows Spread, The Pale Widows Cry’, that bears most resemblances with an ambient soundtrack for an 80’s sci-fi movie. But the overall song structures have more to do with, say, old Christian Death than with classic Black Metal flagships.

But don’t let that deter you, because the first three tracks of this demo in particular, with their slight dissonance and contrary riffs, have more than enough to offer for the seasoned Black Metal devotee. The eerie melodies are close to those of Darkthrone’s unholy trilogy, but the music is generally kept away from those overly well-trodden paths by a deep dynamic that pulls you through slow, doomy stretches and then blazes you to shreds with its flaming pace. A good example is found in ‘Yonic Decadence’, this song has all the previously elements combined, swinging you back and forth between different moods and all of the band’s musical rudiments, displaying all the creative splendour of Bok in just five minutes.

It is clear that MVG’s musical background is deeply rooted in classic Black Metal, but he has widened his scope and certainly is not limiting himself to anything in particular. The result is a diverse piece of Black Metal that contains both second wave Black Metal elements as well as a distinctly more experimental side, consequently you can be treated to classic tremolo picked melodies and spacey electronics at the very same time. But, whatever you get out of it and however you like to slice it, ‘Metastasis Dei’ for sure is an excellent debut demo from a more than competent song writer.

VM-UNDERGROUND

Extreme Metal Fanzine est. 2012

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Bok – Metastasis Dei [Demo]

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