Condemner offers us the most bare-bones death metal possible. We hear only a straightforward guitar. Simple, slow battle drums that press on the same emphasis points of the guitar riff. Traditional death metal vocals round off the bare minimum arrangement, with the occasional higher-register growl doubling for demonic effect at tactical points.

As can be imagined, this album is all guitar. The drums are there to amplify it, to add the sonority of percussion that the genre needs. Male Patratis Sunt Atra Theatra Parata is entirely about the guitar riff and as such, does a very good job. It maintains the promise of Condemner’s 2015 demo, “Omens of Perdition.” Like its predecessor, it offers the listener long stretches of melody-based tremolo-picked riffs with power chord statements for contrast. Perhaps the only novelty here are the sprinklings of rhythm-oriented riffs. These are riffs where the melodic interest is low, relying on the energy of rhythm to move things along.

All that said, a work should stand or fall on its own merits. Many listeners would welcome a more creative, more free, percussion section. A second guitar would also help fill out the spaces (not that we must fall prey to horror vacui, but experienced listeners may note that this is one of the missing ingredients).

On the idealist side, and siding with the musicians however, we have the following to say. The long-winded songs in a long-winded album are not only satisfying but addicting. The sense of pacing and the constant advent of content that almost falls into sameness but never quite does keep you on edge.

The drums, though strictly functional and following the guitar patterns, are adequate, and create space where they must as well as rush forth when they are expected to.

And even in a very orthodox album in which all is as expected, there is the excitement of a new battle, same weapons and same limbs, but new all the same.

Quite notably, the concepts and imagery that Condemner visit is direct and simple: torture and suffering. Art such as this does not flourish in the waters of complex abstraction. If anything, that would take away from clarity and strength. We want for death metal a vivisection of the human mind, the incarnation of a single passion, unabashed and unhindered, stepping on piles of corpses, ascending, uncaring, to its rightful throne.

Know that this is an album for the seasoned listener. It is like good whiskey in a nondescript container. It is best taken in with attention, though it does not disturb, and rather emphasizes, meaningful lonely activity, or the appropriate company. It cannot satisfy the youthful need for novelty, for kicks of fetishistic excitement. Even the extreme topic it touches on is addressed in a mythic, detached way. It is not the giving in to the passions, but the contemplation of human cruelty through the eyes of the statue carved into the columns of a bleak dungeon.

While we dream of a Blaspherian or debut-era Incantation approach to drums could take Condemner’s music to its full potential, Male Patratis Sunt Atra Theatra Parata is an album that sustains repeated listens. Session after session, the understated production tone avoids the grating on the ears that more modern approaches tend to have. Back to back replays make us relish in these pure-structure riffs, and, more importantly, in their orderly procession, a testament to the ability of man to produce a work of focus, channeling dark energies through the filter of reason.

Tags: condemner, death metal