KOSTNATěNÍ - Ùpal

Kostnatění is a rather mysterious project behind which hides a multi-instrumentalist of whom we only know the initials (D and L). This one-man-band from Minnesota, active for five years now, arrives at its second work after a decent debut (“Hrůza Zvítězí” dates back to 2018) and a good EP released a few months ago (“Oheň Hoří Tam, Kde Padl”), a rather sui generis product, capable of blending black metal and Anatolian folklore.

It doesn't matter, then, if the climate in Minneapolis is often harsh, because “Úpal” presses on undeterred along a path that looks exclusively toward the eastern Mediterranean and its Arabic-tinged sounds, a choice that adds to another fairly curious aspect of the matter, namely the use of the Czech language for the album's lyrics.

All the ingredients for a formless, directionless mess would be there, yet Kostnatění pulls an incredible record out of its hat, a vessel capable of further expanding the boundaries of black metal, and not just in avant-garde terms. The most striking examples come from three tracks in particular: the instrumental “Opál” (an unhealthy riff that seems to rise from desert sand), the following “Skrýt Se Před Bohem” (a psychedelic dive in the footsteps of Oranssi Pazuzu) and finally the closing “Slunce Svázáno S Krvácející Zemí”, a furious epilogue enriched by increasingly dense and tangled arrangements.

What is omnipresent across these raw yet fascinating thirty-eight minutes is that folk-oriented spectre that never stops surprising, an approach that's never cloying, able to move deftly between dark dissonances and acid-etched vocals (the opening one-two punch of “Řemen” and “Hořím Navždy” sweeps away tons of recent black productions).

While nodding to a few bands that have already successfully traveled through this kind of territory (from Absu to Melechesh, not to mention Saudi Arabia's Al-Namrood), Kostnatění reworks these arcane sensations in an utterly personal way, letting them simmer in the most suffocating heat: the exact opposite of what happens much further north, with the icy Scandinavian-style sound. This time, death rides among the dunes of the Near East.

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08/07/2023