Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Mütiilation - Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (1995)
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.