Vehemency
Religious devil worship is always welcome to my black metal - as long as it’s done tastefully and not following too closely the footsteps of Deathspell Omega, Watain, Funeral Mist and the likes. Since last year’s split and EP releases, Blaze of Perdition has offered its take on the aforementioned subgenre (if that's an apt term already) and to this date has remained above the average, but only slightly. This applies to their most recent release, The Burning Will of Expansion (which is to be released tomorrow on grey seven inch), as well.
When I first heard Blaze of Perdition’s major debut Towards the Blaze of Perdition, I couldn’t help thinking about Behexen’s most recent works, at least aesthetically. On The Burning Will of Expansion, I am more reminded of Watain with all the dissonance, subtle thrash riffage flirts and Sonneillon’s surprisingly similar screaming style therein. Or more fittingly, this could be said to be a mixture of Massemord and Watain. A good dose of furious blast beats is to be found from here but the band also knows how to slow down yet retaining the evil spirit within. Production-wise, the EP is crispy and professional, yet not as polished as the full-length.
The Burning Will of Expansion ventures convincingly onwards through the two tracks but, as easily can happen, I fail to hear how this really differs from many other releases in the field. I would so love to hear Blaze of Perdition being more daring and not limiting their potential to these compositions that are decent and far from bad, but nothing out of the ordinary. Here’s to hoping that one day Blaze of Perdition will surprise. Additional points for the well-done cover art, however.