Book Of Black Earth - 'Horoskopus'

Book of Black Earth is a scorching agnostic death metal band proposing God is an astrological conception.

Death metal was never intended to be pretty, albeit certain bands such as Death and Enslaved have found ways to fuse vibrancy into a traditionally vociferous sound.

Book of Black Earth does nothing pretty, rest assured if you’re a death and/or black metal follower. However, the Seattle death scrapers merge psychedelic fugue and transparent guitar ambience beneath their butt-ugly crush.

In their attempt to discredit organized religion, Book of Black Earth stands atop an angry pulpit on their sophomore album Horoskopus and in the process gouges listeners’ ears out with bellowed throat whoops from T.J. Cowgill and tortured background wails, such as those found on “Dagon.”

The band approaches their craft intelligently with melody sculpture and black metal guitar scapes beneath their monstrous tempos. Said hollow-dinned beats speed up into grind territories (“The Darkest Age,” for example) before lumbering through doom sequences in a go-halt-go methodology.

Positing the notion of God as a manmade conscript based on astrological studies is a step ahead of simply issuing the ho-hum “Jesus sucks, Satan f*%s” diatribe that’s becoming grossly passé in metal.

Book of Black Earth occasionally dawdles and once in awhile they overextend in their mad rush to brutalize. On the other hand, Book of Black Earth’s hypnotic guitar weaves and chugging rhythms makes Horoskopus worth the trip. These guys should be bombastic onstage.