Conspiracy
Concordat
6.7
It’s a shame that the second album from Holland’s one man black metal act Conspiracy will likely get over looked by the likes of Old Man’s Child and other bigger named black metal acts, as Concordat, like Geist’s Galeere is a collage of perfect black metal riffage, albeit with a more primal and raw delivery with dashes of thrash metal also.
Lone member Alex "Carpathian Wolf" (aka Al' Hazred) has served time as bassist in Melechesh so it’s not like this is a rookie effort, and it shows as Concordat serves up track after track of blistering, yet melodic black metal with a slight thrash hue- think Nifelheim (circa Devil’s Force) with even more melody and a little more polished black metal chord structures - just listen to one the standouts “Die In Style,” instrumental “Last Veteran” and “Limited to 666” if you don’t believe me.
The production is slightly thin, but the riffs make up for the lack of weight as the likes of ‘Mentally Ill God,” “Conquerdate (Concordat)” and “Terrorized into Submission” deliver plenty of gritty tremolo picked goodness and feral rasps. However, a couple of tracks break the mold as Concordat delivers a majestic, synth flocked epic 7-minute track like “Faith” with acoustics, somber clean croons and a depressive gait. Then “Courage” unfurls an surprising Bathory/Viking metal like number showing that the Carpathian Wolf is a jack of all trades when it comes to his stylistic tendencies.
Pulverised has been pretty money as of late and Concordat cements that fact with an impressive release of black metal that covers all the genre's bases, but still keeps things interesting without being too far off base. Good stuff.
