March 2022 Feature Release – The North Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The North has been nominated by Sonny. It's 1995's "Blood & Valour" sophomore album from Melbourne war metal outfit Bestial Warlust, a band that I had a fair bit to do with back in the day along with the early 90's death metal band they were spawned from Corpse Molestation. I had the pleasure of seeing Bestial Warlust play live a couple of times, most notably at the legendary Metal For The Brain festival in Canberra in 1995 when they were fresh from releasing this album. There was always something that attracted me in their chaotic & over the top war metal sound so I'm looking forward to waltzing down memory lane with this one.

https://metal.academy/releases/12964

I enjoy war metal so much because it encapsulates all that I originally loved about metal. It is the antithesis of commercial accessibility and is the flag bearer for a no-fucks-to-give attitude that I'm sure many other metal fans can identify with. I don't want metal to be in the mainstream, I want it to be the black sheep, the outsider, the thorn in the side of the music industry. Those bands that pander to the mainstream and compromise their integrity as a result will never sit entirely comfortably with me, no matter how good they sound.

Bestial Warlust were a short-lived, but influential Aussie war metal outfit, birthed from the ashes of death metal band Corpse Molestation, who delivered two classic war metal albums, debut Vengeance War 'Till Death and follow-up Blood & Valour, during their five year reign. The debut is a great album, but Blood & Valour is my all-time favourite war metal release (although Teitanblood's Death has been giving it a run for it's money over recent months). I posted a review a while ago, so here it is:

Fuck grindcore, deathgrind and brutal death metal. Playing with dismembered body parts and brutalising women, what the fuck's that all about?! No, when real men want to get extreme, then they go to WAR!!

But seriously folks, I don't generally care for super-extreme death metal. Apart from the music not greatly appealing to me, I sometimes find the whole aesthetic around extreme death metal and grind problematic. Of course, I completely understand that it's depictions of gore and sexualised violence are not to be taken seriously but they just don't appeal to me at all. War Metal, however, is just so fucking insane it's impossible (for me) not to get sucked into it's madness. Being derived from Black Metal rather than Death metal (although it certainly has Death Metal influences) makes it more palatable to me as well, as I am much more inclined to BM than it's deathly cousin. I also find the predominantly black, white and red aesthetic of the hand-drawn artwork much more appealing than the graphic nature of a lot of the more gory death metal covers. Naturally, as with any extreme genre, it isn't for everyone (or even most people) but there is something about the cacophonous nature of war metal that I really love.

Now I'm not trying to come across like some trve kvltist - I am mostly only familiar with the more established War Metal acts like Blasphemy, Beherit, Archgoat and more recently Crurifragium and Antichrist Siege Machine, but I had really enjoyed Bestial Warlust's debut, Vengeance War 'Till Death when I heard it a few years back. However, it is only now, more than twenty-five years after it's release, that I have got round to the Aussie warmongers' follow-up, Blood & Valour which has acquired the distinction of being my first five-star-rated War Metal album.

The Spanish film Intacto (great movie) has an opening scene where several people are running full pelt through a forest blindfolded. When I first heard Blood & Valour I had a sensation akin to how I think those people must have been feeling, of hurtling headlong at breakneck speed just waiting to be smacked in the face by a fucking huge piece of wood! Indeed on the first couple of listens it does sound a bit like uncontrolled chaos, but when you start to really listen to it properly then BW are revealed to be a really tight outfit and this is one hell of an accomplished album of sonic brutality. There are some fantastic, exhilarating riffs that remain defined and varied and are not just bludgeoning rehashes of the same idea over and over. The vocals are suitable demonic with shrieks and growls that come from the charnel pits of hell, but the drumming of Marcus Hellcunt (not his real surname I think) are what keep drawing me back, his assault and battery as blastbeat follows blastbeat is a thing of wonder to behold.

This is one of the most savage and visceral of black metal releases, at times it sounds like someone took a vinyl copy of Reign in Blood and played it at 45 rpm, complete with Jeff Hannemann-like squealing guitar solos, with songs slashing by like flailing sabre cuts. Possibly one of the most enervating albums it has ever been my good fortune to hear. If you love extreme black metal then you really need to listen to Blood & Valour.

5/5

This record got a good ol' thrashing within underground metal circles in Australia back when i was still playing in death metal bands & it's been really fun to relive some of those glory days this week. "Blood & Valour" is about as war metal as war metal gets really & that's something that appeals to me a lot. It kinda sounds like Bestial Warlust have combined the early war metal of Blasphemy with the over-the-top death metal of Sadistik Exekution & the blackened thrash of Sarcofago with a dash of 80's Morbid Angel thrown in for good measure but this is a very Australian sound in my opinion. There were a number of bands in our little scene that flew in on the coat-tails of the Sadistik crew but Bestial Warlust took their super-extreme approach in a slightly less ridiculous but no less entertaining direction. No fucks have been given whatsoever with the production job seemingly aimed at the most raw & underground sound it could muster & they've done a splendid job of it to be fair. I really love the ultra-aggressive vocal performance of Bloodstorm who sounds positively demonic while the instrumental performances are never clinical enough to lose their underground street credibility. The tracklisting is pretty consistent with only blackened thrash outing "Legion of Wrath" falling short of the mark but, in saying that, I'm not sure that Bestial Warlust ever quite manage to transcend the idea that they lack a little depth. Sure, they offer an entertaining & undoubtedly brutal ride but I wouldn't call any of this material a genuine classic. I find it a little too shallow for that which is interesting because I rank a track or two from their debut right up there with the very best the war metal subgenre has to offer. There's an element of novelty about it that's hard to overcome if I'm being honest. But let's not overthink things too much here because I'm sure that the band weren't intending that when they put this record together. You can easily hear how much fun they're having & it's hard not to buy into that when experiencing "Blood & Valour" which will no doubt offer plenty of appeal for all war metal fans.

4/5

Plummeting straight out of the ugly tree and hitting every branch on the way down, Bestial Warlust do not fuck around for one second of Blood & Valour. Despite their obvious ability to tear your face off, they do not rely on this capability alone to get their message across however. Time is taken to build some (loose) sense of structure on some tracks and yes, I grant you, these soon dissolve into furious blackened-death metal (or War Metal for some purists) that have little intention other than to be as loud and obnoxious as possible. The point is that even when they are not in full-tilt slaughter-mode Bestial Warlust can still scare the shit out of you.

Beyond just ticking boxes in the extreme world of metal, the Aussie three-piece create genuine torque in their music. Yes the horse-power on how fast they can go is impressive enough but the grunt that sits behind that speed is equally noteworthy. I would not say we ever reach warp-speed here and despite the production values the band deliver a clearly audible assault that carries rhythm the majority of the way. In a way it is an album that you only need occasional blasts of as it absolutely delivers with every play making it one of the most satisfying listens I could wish for.

 In terms of criticism, the instrumental track slapped bang in the middle of the album just feels showy and unnecessary. Without vocals, this level of extremity has its limits guys! I would have left that track out and just kept on with the more complete feel to the tracks. The album does feel a little disrupted by the instrumental track unfortunately, almost like it has to start again. I can cope with ugly but inconsistency is harder to swallow.

4/5