Ungod - Circle of the Seven Infernal Pacts
Review: In the stream of powerchords style of atmospheric rudimentary black metal Ungod weave a fine melodic sense through continuity of raw rhythm power in riffing and extension of phrase through variation and structural points of change toward theme, development and conclusions. With the complexity of a basic hardcore album and mostly standard chord shapes, this appeals to few except the perverse Beherit extremists but offers an insight into chaos caught in structure and projected linearly.
Conceptually the album centers around mood rather than expressed ideals and in that forum of atmosphere ventures through darkness and an epic sense of conflict and essential difference in battle over constricting space as time evolves themes toward resonance and recombination. Changing tempo for dynamic motion this band vary constant racing drive with junctures and switches in song structure that change with dynamic mood and shape of melody, reflecting vast inversion or change in counterpoint to earlier structure.
Dark and morbid in theme it is nonetheless energetic and with an enlightened sense of riff construction mated to forward thought on melodic continuity, for the most part this album creates black metal of great power, with some songs on here hitting the mark less than others. Constant undulation of tone and pronounced, definite change in narrative make this memorable in experience while an almost ear-friendly sense of melody underscores construction. A harsh shriek of constant tempo offbeat emphasis paces these works of often blasting black metal.
Forgotten for its simple rawness and direct appeal in a time of popular advancement of aesthetic in black metal, this album and its progenitors shall again be hailed when black metal returns from its detours toward the basics of its heuristic of composition, and although perhaps never seen as foundational understood as aspects of foundation to a genre growing within itself toward its own purity.