Ankhelgloknar - Mortuus Deus (1999)

Cost: $1.00

Not sure whether the stupid band name (and concept behind it, as explained in the booklet) are just childish attempts to seem obscure and nihilistic, or whether it's supposed to be a parody of black metal.  I suspect the former.

"Ankhelgloknar is destined to redefine the Black/Thrash metal category. The 6 piece European brood boasts a manic and violent style that will be sure to shred even the most jaded ears. The bands razor sharp vocals, screaming twin guitar solos and ballistic rhythm section will make this group a hit with true fans of this genre! The band, having honed their individual styles in various bands in various areas of Europe, seems to have found a dark and nefarious style that they can lay claim to as their own. They have formed a belief in the ancient arts taught by the religious pariah and their namesake "Ankhelgloknar" that feeds their musical sound and lyric style. This can be witnessed in their debut album "Mortuus Deus" which delivers it's deadly goods with over 60 minuets of unholy metal! These guys are scary and not recommended for the impressionable or faint of heart. They play with the convictions of their beliefs and it shows. Give them a listen....We dare you!"

Ironically, after all that cheesy hype, the band end up not even being black/thrash.  They don't seem to be European either--the vocalist is obviously the guy from the band O.C.D. on the same record label, so I expect at least some of the other members are too.

So imagine it's the late '90s, and you want to cash in on the black metal trend.  Except you've never really heard any black metal before, maybe just read a oversimplified text description ("raspy vocals and dark riffs").  You're in a groove/modern thrash metal band, so you figure if you evil things up a little, you can present yourselves as a black/thrash band.  That's pretty much what it feels like.  I must stress that the end result has very limited resemblance to anything black metal, so it's not the typical Cradle of Filth or Norwegian emulation you might expect from a bandwagon jumping band.

The songs are midpaced, with chuggy, groovy thrash riffs.   The longer songs sometimes have riffs closer to the traditional black metal tremolo style, but even then, in this context it doesn't really sound much like BM.  The guitar solos are interesting but inconsistent--sometimes they're more traditional shredding, other times they'll be discordant and squelchy.  The vocals are probably the oddest and most disconcerting thing here, as rather than any kind of extreme metal vocals, they sound more like an affected trollish voice you might find on a cartoon villain's henchman or lackey (the main villain would probably have a cooler, more ominous voice).  After getting used to them they were more weird than bad, although they often have a strange cadence.  The drumming seems like organic playing, but the sound (the snare in some tracks is annoying and industrialish) definitely makes me think they're triggered or an electronic kit.

There are only six tracks, but they're quite long--the shortest is 6:30, and three of them run almost 12 minutes or more.  The best stuff on the disc is the atmospheric parts on two of the longer tracks.   "Dead End" has a mellow, contemplative end section with acoustic guitar and chanting vocals.  The last half of "The Summoning" turns unexpectedly ambient with tribal drumming and almost mantra-like chanted vox (even better, the outro is another 5+ min. reprise of the "Dead End" ending).

So yeah, odd CD, and the overall listening experience reminded me much more of some kind of weird, dark progressive metal than anything black metal.  Completely stupid marketing for this.  Wish they had expanded on some of the atmospheric/avant-garde elements, but this ended up being unexpectedly ok at times for a buck.