Tangorodrim
Justus Ex Fide Vivit
6.8
Technicality? BAH! Tangorodrim SMASH your technicality!
Bells and whistles? YAARGH! Save your bells and whistles for the womens!
Tangorodrim explode your damned heart!! Tangorodrim punch your eyes with nails!! Tangorodrim kick loose your spine!!! TANGORODRIM MAKE KILL ON YOUR FACE!!!
Okay, hopefully you get the idea: We’ve entered the angry caveman realm of heavy metal…
Israel’s Tangorodrim kick my ass into the Paleolithic Era every time they release a new record, and I love ‘em for it. Simple, cavemanic, priest-punching black metal with utterly blatant hails to Hellhammer and Darkthrone. Such brazen exaltation, in fact, that the cover of their Unholy and Unlimited (vinyl-only) release simply featured a close-up photo of a guy holding a copy of Apocalyptic Raids. Yep, Tangorodrim definitely tattoo their influences on their sleeves, and Justus Ex Fide Vivit -- much like the band’s previous three releases -- follows the exact same formula: six tunes of archaic black metal pounded into your skull with crusty riffing, tooth-cracking feedback, in-elaborate drumming, and vocals barked down from a drunken biker who’s just whipped your ass to the dirt.
Each cut basically hammers a gurgling, gruff, mid-paced riff into your face with only the occasional drift into a sludgier, more tar-soaked moment here and there (the bulk of the title track, for example, or the sweet, battering mid-point of “No Light”). In short, Justus Ex Fide Vivit is drunken, old school black metal that’s well-suited to match you shot-for-shot until you’re both piss-drunk in a chair getting matching tattoos of hellbound Angels on your arms. No solos, no keyboards, no intros, no wolves howling: just filthy, crusty, primordial black metal that demands to be cranked, celebrates inebriation, hails barbarous antics, and of course pays heavy homage to Hellhammer and Darkthrone. Not much more really needs to be said. You either raise your goblet to the grim, or you simply move on. As far as this reviewer's concerned, I say “down the hatch.”
