Mütiilation - Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (1995)^{Release ID: 7828}

An underground gem that clearly influenced many future extreme black metal bands.

This is my very first experience with Mutiilation so I wasn't completely sure what to expect. It's not hard to figure after a quick look at the cover and track listing that these French morbids would be producing some form of raw black metal with titles such as Eternal Empire of Majesty Death and Ravens of My Funeral, but nothing prepared me for what was to come. The thing that's so surprising is not necessarily how good Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is, and it is good, but more how incredibly influential this album is. I had absolutely no idea that what I always considered a very American style of black metal originated in France.

RYM member chspiratecd (whatever that means) made the following statement in his review below: "for all you hooligans that discovered this through Xasthur's cover of Black Imperial Blood, smack yourself for listening to US black metal before the French" and I have to admit that he (or she) is bang on the money! Both Xasthur and Leviathan owe an awful lot to Mutiilation for the sound they would produce over 5 years after this release and Black Imperial Blood fit so well on Xasthur's awe inspiring Nocturnal Poisoning album in 2002 that I had absolutely no idea that it was in fact a cover version.

For anyone yet to experience any of the bands listed above, they all create an extremely raw and intentionally underproduced form of black metal with the main goal being rather macabre and unsettling music that seemingly drips with pure atmosphere. The vocals are unrestrained and emotionally impacting, the riffs and melodies cold and somehow distant. If you enjoy bands like Dimmu Borgir or Emperor but haven't delved too far into the extreme depths of the black metal abyss, you may want to check this out before assuming you'll find enjoyment here. I'm certainly not trying to be elitist here, but Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is not for the weak of heart.

So clearly, I think this release has a lot to offer and is certainly an important piece of history, although I wasn't aware of it until just now. But I'm not suggesting it is without flaws in the slightest. The main issue, and one that plagues a fair amount of Xasthur's work also, is that a lot of the tracks have varying recording quality. I'm aware that part of extreme black metal's appeal is that the musicians appear not to care one iota about the listener, but I have to say that it's quite distracting when the sound jumps dramatically between tracks. The guitars are almost hidden on a few and yet quite upfront on others which suggests it was all recorded at various times and with different equipment.

All up though I've discovered a missing link in my black metal knowledge with Mutiilation and I'm damn glad that I've finally made the connection. There's no doubt that I'll be coming back to Vampires of Black Imperial Blood every now and then although I do believe the apprentice overpowered the master once Xasthur rose from the depths. Highlight tracks for me are Magical Shadows of a Tragic Past, Born Under the Master's Spell, Black Imperial Blood and Tears of a Melancholic Vampire.

I love anything having to do with vampires. I also love SDBM, and this seams to be the prototype for that! This is absolutely sublime!  I'm even going to give that silly ass cover a pass here. 

You only thought early black metal had raw production values. This very well may not have had any production values. Where as a lesser band would just buy a cheap casette recorder, put it down in the middle of the room and press record, these guys went the extra mile by taking that recording, playing it through a telephone, and then recording that. I'm not even being satirical here, that is what the production sounds like, and it works. It works extremely well. The drums were made with just a bass drum and a pair of hitstix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit_Stix. Seriously, I had some as kid, they sound exaclty like the drums here. The guitar tone is nothing special but it sounds a little bit diferent again because of the production values, it's just unique enough to stand out. I'm spending a lot of words on the production because it is the engine that makes this whole album go. If this was polished, even a little bit the whole thing would fall apart. 

There are a couple of other secret weapons here. Despite claiming to have made a "fuck you" record, I actually think they cared quite a bit. The lyrics occasionally do venture into satanic territory, which I insist is a crutch in the sub-genre, but it's not the identity of the album. What this album is really about is gothic atmosphere, and feeling like a vampire-like something that looks human, but is so horribly twisted on the inside that it really couldn't be farther from human. To get that across in lyric form is not easy to do, but it has been done expertly here. The guitar rifs as lo-fi, distorted, and harsh as they are, are also very catchy and memorable-again not the product of a musican who didn't care. This was carefully constructed thoughtful stuff-but at a time where a black metal musician didn't dare say as much. 

I really love Norwegian black metal, but I've got to say that the French do take some beating when it comes to the most unholy of metal genres. The list of fantastic French black metal albums keeps expanding and the latest to cross my path is Mütiilation's 1995 debut, Vampires of Black Imperial Blood. I can't in all honesty say why it's taken me so long to take the plunge with this, but I'm here now, so it's all good.

Anyway, Mütiilation were a member of the infamous Les Légions Noires and were the brainchild of Meyhna'ch (b. William Roussell) who would have been only about 18 when these tracks were laid down and I guess it takes the cockiness of youth to release an album that is such a "fuck you!" to pretty much everybody as a debut. This youthful lack of fucks-to-give is what black metal's second wave was built upon though, I guess. This is a boss-level second wave album and will most definitely not appeal to everyone. It's lo-fi, stripped down production will put an enormous amount of people off, I suspect, but for those who love this kind of nekro shit (myself included) then they will be in black metal nirvana. When the excess flesh is stripped away what we are left with is the beating heart of, for want of a better expression, true black metal. Without decent production, layered synths, folksy interludes and clean sung parts what becomes important is what really matters when black metal is distilled down to it's most essential elements - the riffs, the blastbeats and the harsh vocals and Mütiilation deliver these in spades. Meyhna'ch is quoted in the booklet to my version saying in September '94 "Today, black metal seems to be dead, trendies has (sic) taken everything in hands... and Black Imperial Blood is one fist in their pigfaces". So I think you can see exactly where this album is coming from and what it aims to achieve.

It must be said thet despite having such a raw, visceral sound what does shine through is Meyhna'ch's uncanny ear for a memorable riff such as those on Magical Shadows of a Tragic Past and Ravens of My Funeral to name but two. There are some nice pace changes throughout with several gloomy, depressed-sounding slower sections contrasting the brutality of the blasting, the track Eternal Empire of Majesty Death being a great example. Believe me though, when the blasting hits, it hits hard and should push the blood pressure of any metal maniac up to hypertensive levels. Meyhna'ch's vocal delivery is of the croaking style rather than shrill shrieking, but still gives me a sore throat just listening to him, such is the rawness of the delivery.

OK, there is some variation in the sound of the tracks, testament to the fact they were recorded at different times with four of the eight being from the previous year's Black Imperial Blood (Travel) demo but with such lo-fi production this doesn't really make a whole heap of difference. If you are into the rawer and more visceral side of black metal then Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is an absolutely essential release. Orginal copies are going for £148 on Discogs and it is well-sought for good reason.

The clattering drum sticks that herald the arrival of opening track Magical Shadows of a Tragic Past set the tone perfectly for what is to come on Mütiilation’s debut full length. This is the raw and antediluvian style of black metal that had established such a grim grip on metal during the early nineties. Its icy talons were firmly dug into Meyhna'ch and Mordred as they threw out eight tracks of crude structures and zero production values as the decade hit the halfway point. It should be noted that four of these tracks appeared on the demo of the same name as this album (“Travel” was added at the end) in 1994 and in fact the whole album plays like a demo.

Around since 1991, Mütiilation were part of Les Légions Noire, a collection of French black metal bands who espoused themes and concepts such as Satanism and Vampirism as well as having a focus on the darker side of the emotional sphere often dwelling on melancholy and hopelessness. In the liner notes for the album (or at least the CD version that I have), Meyhna’ch wrote:

“Today, black metal seems to be dead, trendies has taken everything in hands…and Black Imperial Blood is one fist in their pigfaces. Anyway, we’re tired to be compared with those humans and their false black metal. We are aliens to this world… The moon, the cry of wolves and the ancient times were so beautiful, the night is the only thing that creates a felling in my human shell, as we’ve nothing to do with life. So, listen to us, admire or scorn us but don’t try to be one of us. We definitively don’t belong to same world.”

Clumsy English aside, it is clear from this quote that seems to be some attempt to distance themselves from the “dead” black metal scene that the pair were either completely fucking mental or genuinely had no regard for “those humans” and this ethos maps directly to the music. Even by bm standards this is oppositional stuff played with absolutely no regard for the listener. Drums tend to patter around like the footfalls of a handful of goblins chasing children around a landscape of fog-laden threat. Guitars range from stabbing riffs to tortuous tremolos and the vocals are a continuous rasp that spit vocals as opposed to just expressing them. Rhythm is not held in very high regard it is fair to say and overall, you probably could not get much closer to a more classic example of pure black metal mentality than what we have here.

This is not an album that you can take memorable moments from. It is all just horrendous and uncomfortable to listen to, but it was never supposed to anything else really and as such is a huge success. Vampires of Black Imperial Blood achieves exactly what it sets out to do. Yet I find it such a compelling listen every time I play it. To hear something this deliberately alienating and constructively estranged from humanity is a genuine joy to listen to. I honestly do not know whether to laugh at the artwork and booklet pictures of Mordred’s constantly wide-eyed visage or to reel away in fear of exactly what is going on behind those eyes. However, I am here and I am listening.

Vampires Have Feelings Too

I’ve slowly been figuring out that the explosion of the Black Metal genre in the early to mid-1990’s isn’t to be underestimated. Within two or three years this raw and evil offshoot of Thrash Metal went from having only a handful of notable bands pushing the genre forward to everyone plus their long lost, distant relatives pulling new sub-genres out of thin air. Whether it was Symphonic, Atmospheric, or Melodic Black Metal, the short span between 1993 and 1995 had an insurmountable number of influential albums being released all over the world. Amidst all these groundbreaking albums that I actually enjoy, Mütiilation hit me with an album that made me scratch my head a bit. Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is influential in a more traditional sense, with the album itself not exactly breaking entirely new ground in the same way as something like Bathory’s Hammerheart, but still having a massive impact and influence on later artists that would refine what this album started. If I'm being honest though, I can't say that I'm a massive fan of what would spawn from this, whether you want to call it Depressive Black Metal or not, and that makes it really difficult to like what Mütiilation did on their debut. 

Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is a raw and grating experience, but not in the same way as other lo-fi Black Metal albums. I can be a big fan of classic lo-fi or even modern lo-fi production if it's handled well, but Mütiilation's approach of having zero bottom end on anything mixed with some instantly notable inconsistencies between the tracks just doesn't do it for me. The bass drum for all the blast beats is barely audible and while there are more than a few cool guitar riffs and melodies, the moments where they're able to shine through in any meaningful way are few and far between. The album is split into two distinct production styles, the first being "Eternal Empire", "Under Ardailles Night", "Magical Shadows Of A Tragic Past", and "Black Imperial Blood" having a very foggy and muddled guitar tone that pushes the percussion even farther into the background. "Ravens Of My Funeral", "Transylvania", "Tears Of A Melancholic Vampire", and "Born Under the Master's Spell" are a bit more standard in their lo-fi production as the tremolo riffs are clearer and more audible but still have that grindy and cold quality to them. Throwing these two production styles into one albums definitely makes for a jarring experience and even though the apparent devil-may-care attitude towards the overall quality of the music could be endearing for some, it never gripped me in a meaningful way.

However, I admittedly understand why this album is cited as being so influential. As Black Metal was being refined from its lo-fi beginnings by multitudes of bands, Mütiilation decided to double down on the essence of what separated Black Metal from Thrash Metal in the first place. This album undoubtedly has a lot of passion to it, even though raw passion can be a double-edged sword in cases like this. There are plenty of great riffs in tracks like "Black Imperial Blood" and "Under Ardailles Night" that rival some of the other classic Black Metal albums of the time, but there's so many uninteresting blast beat sections stuffed in-between these moments that just don't keep me captivated whatsoever. The raw and cold energy of this release just bounces off of me, which is strange since I'm normally a pretty big fan of Atmospheric Black Metal for those exact reasons. It's hard to say why, since I agree that there's a ton of dark and grim emotion packed into this release, but I suppose it's not conveyed in a way that's captivating to me.