renkls A rather slight album, if you consider it an album and not a single 35 minute track - but for the single track it is, it's quite catchy, albeit rather repetitive because of it.

The title track (which is a rather amusing title too) uses one underlying rhythm to drive the whole album, then adds various elements to the piece as it progresses. I hear piano, melodic elements and some feedback experimentation weave in and out. The lyrics, though somewhat sparse, are actually a highlight point for me. Despite being firmly in black metal territory, I had no issue discerning the words at all, as they seemed to tread the line between singing and spoken word.

While at its core, pretty aesthetically simple, it's still not a bad album in itself, just gives the feeling of being overly slight for a full length release. At 35 minutes, the length doesn't feel overlong at least. As an album/song, you could do a lot worse though.

Vehemency While I wasn’t so stoked about Massemord’s earlier release, namely the short EP Notes of Antihate Profound, this latest output, a true name monster for sure, grabs my interest on a totally different level. As soon as the first sounds of the fading-in instruments are heard on The Madness Tongue Devouring Juices of Livid Hope, the listener is in for a 35-minute hypnotizing ride.

A down-tuned guitar rhythm pattern is the basis behind the droning, rather slow-tempo, long song. It’s menacing, simple and indeed repetitive, but never boring - much thanks to the intricate yet not too technical drumming and, most importantly, the melodic ideas that are brought on top of the pulsing rhythm section. A lot of interesting guitarwork is provided by the other guitarist while the other keeps going on with the heavy main rhythm. Occasional ethereal synth sounds are presented and at times the atmosphere builds up to semi-fast blastbeats. The singer Namtar’s convincing masculine low-range screams are similar to Mgła’s, and even generally the album reminds me surprisingly much of the aforementioned band.

The brooding atmosphere that possesses The Madness Tongue Devouring Juices of Livid Hope is impressive: the journey is quite an experience. Production-wise, the album is very well done with a professional, full and rough sound with many detailed levels. Musically, the album might not be the most original one but surely a real treat anyways. Just ignore the rather bad looking cover art and invest into this record if you are a fan of, say, Mgła that is this time stretched into an atmospheric, half an hour piece.

Vehemency Rapid, relentless black metal is the name of the game on Massemord’s ten minute EP consisting of two tracks of which the other - ”Masskilling Masshealing” - is an old composition now appearing here again, though this isn’t a problem for me as I don’t have previous knowledge of Massemord with the exception of the most recent full-length released just a couple of days ago.

So, compared to the brooding, droning style that The Madness Tongue Devouring Juices of Livid Hope offered, Notes of Antihate Profound is ten times faster and clearly more in-your-face. Blast beats dominate as do the evil riffs - that unfortunately kind of lack personal touch - and Namtar’s convincingly delivered mid-range screams. ”Cognition of Fear” is at best when given a little space for slower tempo and an interesting lead guitar melody. ”Masskilling Masshealing” starts with an almost punky riff but soon after builds up to the general style of 1349 esque speed chaos with occasional technical elements.

Although in general I enjoy the furiousness that Notes of Antihate Profound provides, and production-wise it all sounds perfectly balanced between full yet rough sound where all the instruments are audible, I can’t say I find anything enough gripping from the two songs; hence I was much more impressed by the innovative ideas that the recent full-length offered. I could assume, though, that this is a must-buy for Massemord fans and most certainly the band seems to know what they are doing. Notes of Antihate Profound is not a bad EP at all - just fairly unsurprising.