Mäleficentt - Night of Eternal Darkness (2020)^{Release ID: 26781}

As I have recalled elsewhere on MA, black metal was the last of the extreme genres of metal that I engaged with.  I missed the whole of the 1st and 2nd waves at the time of their existence.  Blissfully unaware of the very concept of black metal for a good few years as I revelled in the realms of death metal, thrash metal and heavy metal (even doom metal got some airing before I ever got onto black metal).  I guess it was in the noughties that I finally got into black metal in terms of making album purchases and formulating favoured artists.  I find that black metal is almost unable to get old or ever truly expand itself in terms of my interest that has been ongoing for twenty years or so.  As much as I can understand and enjoy the Jute Gytes of this world and indeed become quite comfortable with the more melodic and atmospheric aspects of black metal in recent years, I still find the more conventional traits of the style more appealing when it comes to my consistent listening habits.

It is bands such as Mütiilation and Judas Iscariot with their frank and unapologetic hopelessness and outright nihilism that have continued to keep me interested, long after my initial flirtations with Burzum, Mayhem and Darkthrone a couple of decades ago.  Mäleficentt then is right up my street based on these references.  This one man project out of California is the work of Eduardo Mora, who has at least three or four other black metal projects on the go at the same time with Mäleficentt being the most prolific in terms of releases.  With a healthy array of demo, splits and EP releases under his belt, Eduardo has added two full-lengths to that discography with Night of Eternal Darkness being the second of those albums.

It did not take long for me to become absorbed in this record.  With that simplicity married perfectly with that trademark inaccessibility, delivered through harsh and abrasive tones, Night of Eternal Darkness soon found itself ticking all the necessary boxes for me over its twenty-nine minute runtime.  Embracing those ghastly and cavernous vocals was almost an organic response as the tremolos unleashed their scathing fury, occasionally tempered by a crude melodicism laid over drums that flap in the background in the more the furious blastbeat sessions.  Suitably necro in its production values, the album still seems to offer enough intrigue beyond the instant aggression that is commonplace here from the moment the opening instrumental track finishes.  I mean there is no clever use of progression or anything but there is more than just a straight up conventional black metal on offer here also.  Album closer Bones of Compatriots has an echo to it that somehow sounds like the track is folding in on itself as it plays through.  This may not be a conscious thing but it is interesting nonetheless.