Info
- Band(s): Kyūketsuki
- Label(s): Battlesk'rs Productions
- Release Format(s): Cassette
- Release Year: 2024
- Review Date: September 7, 2024
- Author(s): LV
Kyūketsuki, the Japanese word for “Vampire” is yet another captivating Ambient Black Metal project from Maxime Taccardi in which he delves into the religious and mythological context of Japanese Buddhism, namely the aspect of the Jigoku. Jigoku is a complex underworld with numerous hot and cold regions where souls are punished according to their sins. It is ruled by Emma-ō, the lord of death, who judges the deceased. There are eight hot hells and eight cold hells, each with unique forms of punishment.
A strong starting point, if you ask me: death, undead and afterlife. The eerie atmosphere which usually serves as a multi-layered tapestry for his atmospheric/ambient compositions is more downtuned and simpler on this Kyūketsuki album and way more room was given to percussion, guitars and utterly frightening vocals. This results in even darker and more direct music.
Tracks such as ‘The Book of Satan’ and ‘Jigoku’ are extremely obscure and brutal and grab you in their stranglehold.
Kyūketsuki deals with hell in all its aspects: for instance atrocious brutalities, as can be heard on ‘The Rape of Nanking’, an event that took place in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Maxime doesn’t glorify war crime nor atrocities but simply paints a rendition of that massacre which serves as a metaphor for unspeakable evil…
And the bleak darkness goes on: ‘These is no more Light’, ‘Supreme Evil’, ‘Alone Against All’ are cinematic outbursts of vileness and rotten corruption with tribalistic drumming, bestial vomited vocals and esoteric out of control guitars.
On the guitar-driven ‘8 the Poet of Failure’, based on a novel by Mikael Niemi, a Swedish author known for his unique storytelling style, the putrid and tyrannical vocals of none other than Meyhna’ch can be heard. The track itself is laced with etherial chanting, giving it an ever more dramatic and ghostly aspect. The book explores themes of creativity failure, and the human condition through the life of a poet who struggles with his craft and personal demons.
‘No Life is Sacred’ is another alienating track, a musical testimony of terrifying disrespect for death and dying.
Again, ‘In Hell I Shall be King’ is intense, frightening and compelling. I would even say that the more spartan approach delivers an album which ventures even more into the fiery depths of Black Metal.
Fans of otherworldly and extreme cinematic Black Metal absolutely need to hear this Kyūketsuki.
Battlesk'rs Productions
- Country: France
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram
