Blackened Death Doom Metal
Season Of Mist Records
Release Date – November 3rd 2023
Line Up:
Gregor Mackintosh – Vocals/Guitar
Ben Ash – Guitar
Chris Casket – Bass
Guido Zima – Drums
Tracklist:
1 – Bathed In The Black Sun
2 – The Grotesque
3 – Beautiful Stigmata
4 – A Spear Of Perfect Grief
5 – The Construct Of Misery
Strigoi was formed out of the ashes of Gregor Mackintosh’s previous project Vallenfyre. He brought bass player Chris Casket with him, and they started to write their first album which was released in November 2019 to much critical acclaim. You know what happened next – COVID buggered everything up for everybody, but Strigoi ploughed on now with guitarist Ben Ash and drummer Guido Zima on board they released their sophomore album ‘Viscera’ in October 2021. Now here we have a further five tracks that were recorded in the ‘Viscera’ sessions. Quite why they weren’t on the album I don’t know, but here they are now in all their blackened, doomy, deathlike glory.
A harsh guitar opens the title track as the sound of crashing drums become louder and Casket’s bass drives the song, and the guitars bring a ton of chugging riffage. Mackintosh gives us a scary roar as the song weaves around the riffs. ‘The Grotesque’ continues with the harsh guitars and drummer Zima goes full on speed metal – jeez this is evil. ‘Beautiful Stigmata’ is 42 seconds of death metal before we get a pounding with ‘A Spear Of Perfect Grief’ Mackintosh and Ash channel their inner black/death metal child on some extreme riffage and blinding lead work. Final cut is the brief but essential ‘The Construct Of Misery’.
This is as black as a witch’s tit, as a dead as a doornail and thrashes like a bastard. It has everything that any self-respecting extreme metal band should have, and the execution is literally deadly. I’m going to have to go back and listen to ‘Viscera’ because of these were the songs that were left off that record then it must be something special.
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 9/10
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