Czech black/death metal band Altars Ablaze seems to have appeared out of thin air with a fully formed sound and precision sometimes missing from this amalgamation of genres but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that with a roster of veterans from groups like Heaving Earth, Elysium, and Brutally Deceased it makes sense. Their debut full-length Life Desecration seeks to fuse the brutality and unrelenting nature of both genres into a quick and riff driven effort, providing plenty of twists and turns that rarely let up from one song to another. While some of the tracks do feel a bit similarly constructed, the brevity of the attack and sheer amount of riffs makes Life Desecration one of the stronger debuts of 2022.
Altars Ablaze pulls from the more blast heavy variants of death metal and weaves in the type of twisted, ever-shifting melodies of black metal, often feeling like it’s trying to slowly peel away at your skin while simultaneously cracking your skull with a hammer. Songs come in hard and fast, emphasizing speed and more speed with equal amounts of lumbering grooves and dizzying leads. On the death metal side it falls somewhere between the likes of Angelcorpse, Hate Eternal, and Vader while the black metal elements remind me a bit more of the twisted, nightmarish riffs that groups like Shrine of Insanabilis or VI have on offer. It’s a lethal combination that is likely to bring those acts and more to mind yet doesn’t quite sound exactly like either one of them, and the weight that the production adds makes this material hit as hard as possible. Plenty of bands have gone for this blast happy approach and tried to offer twists and turns but lost the script in the process, falling into sloppier playing or simplistic patterns that are the same from one song to the next. Contrast this with Life Desecration which feels tight and precise and varies its attack with enough riffs to make specific moments stand out in your memory, and you have an album that leaves a lasting impression. Admittedly it’s not perfect, as even with the variation a few of the later tracks tread territory that’s just a little too close to the earlier ones, leaving Altars Ablaze room for expansion even if they already have this style down to a science.
The vocals offer a raspier scream/growl that offers a similar blend of black and death metal as the instrumentation. It’s the type of rougher edged pitch that towers above the recording and adds this monolithic presence to an already immense sounding album. Stylistically it reminds me of French bands like Temple of Baal, though there are some backing growls on songs like “Shrine Destroyer” that channel more Vader. This variation helps Altars Ablaze to remain razor sharp from beginning to end and avoid the repetitive structures that sometimes plague bands of this type, giving a bit more nuance to the chaos. Again, there are familiar elements at work and I’m sure some of you will think of other vocalists that you’re reminded of while listening to Life Desecration, but the quality of the performance makes a difference.
Altars Ablaze still has room to expand upon the elements of this debut and really put their own stamp on the genre, but when they come out of the gate with riffs this strong and really capture black and death in equal capacity, they’re worth paying attention to. The group already has a knack for strong songwriting with plenty of twists and turns that doesn’t drag on for needlessly long, and that puts them ahead of some of the other newcomers that have come across my desk in recent memory. Crank this one up loud and prepare to get leveled. Life Desecration is available from Lavadome Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg