Adorior - Author of Incest (2005)Release ID: 30266
Wretched Conglomerate
When I decided to check out Author of Incest I thought I was in for a few good chuckles and not much else considering the album's name and hilariously appalling cover art, but somehow I was quickly proven wrong. It turns out that Adorior are a bit more familiar than I originally thought, consisting of members from a multitude of extreme Metal nationalities including the band's home country of the United Kingdom, Poland, as well as Australia. Despite the drummer being from the more well known Death Metal act Cruciamentum, the more interesting inclusion for me is Australian guitarist Shrapnel, who was the lead guitarist of Deströyer 666 during their inception and heyday in the early 2000's. Despite only listening to 2016's Wildfire which didn't even have Shrapnel in it, the riffs and solos felt all too familiar in a very positive way immediately when "Hater Of Fucking Humans" starts. It seems like extreme Metal musicians really get around, so Adorior are a bit more prolific than their initial impressions, especially with War Metal names like Bestial Warlust within their members' repertoires.
This album is a violent weave of high tempo aggression that teeters on the edge of Blackened Thrash and War Metal and attempts to exaggerate those elements as much and as often as possible. At the forefront is Adorior's female vocalist who only goes by Melissa and tries to sell the evil atmosphere as much as possible with some impressively spiteful Black Metal vocals. The evil laughs, spat out lyrics, varied shrieks and impromptu yells work well with the wicked atmosphere Author of Incest is going for. It's nifty to hear a woman step up to the plate as much as Melissa does in this album, considering it's a rush of nonstop aggression from start to finish. The album overall tries to be as shocking and brutal as possible, but not necessarily in a cheap or lazy sort of way. It's a massive conglomeration of Black, Thrash, and War metal ideas that come together in an intensely technical style with legions of strong riffs backed up by frantic drumming and ghastly vocals that, honestly succeeds in its goal and made me legitimately uncomfortable after sitting through the whole thing.
I'm sure that's a positive for War Metal fans who are into this kind of presentation and as much as I want to spin this album in a positive light, I have to admit that it gets to be a bit too much for me. Despite being somewhat one-note throughout its runtime, I feel pretty confident in saying that Adorior is a diamond in the rough for fans of seriously brutal and extreme Black Metal, but I can't say it helps their case for me personally. Despite Shrapnel laying down riff after riff and Melissa conjuring some demon within her vocal chords, tracks like "Birth of Disease" and "Vitriolic Megalomaniac" are over 8 minutes long and feel like they never want to end. Adorior's style of massive, nonstop bursts of aggression backfire on them as most of the songs are extended past where you'd expect. The length and extended song structures almost get to the point of becoming a feature like certain Technical Death Metal, but the approach is so straightforwardly brutal that I'm entirely checked out after "To Split A Lamb". Despite that, the guitar work is still very impressive and the overall production is massive and callous but clear enough to showcase the complex riffing and diverse vocal performances.
Author of Incest was definitely a welcome surprise considering I came into the album expecting to have a terrible time, but I can't see myself going back and getting much more out of it past my current two or three listens. While the theatrics and performances are impressive, it was getting old rather quickly. I'd urge anyone with a stronger stomach than me to give this relatively unknown album a shot though as there's still some quality ideas hidden beneath the initially eye-rolling presentation. I guess Adorior are just a bit too brutal for my fragile soul, I suppose.
