I gotta hand it to Metal Blade, they certainly can’t be accused of not adding any trailblazers in their arsenal. Giving unique bands a shot at the big time (at least in metal terms, for what it’s worth) is something they deserve major props for. Glorior Belli‘s latest effort The Great Southern Darkness has been streaming in full over at Decibel Magazine for about a week and is out as of yesterday in the US. Despite being somewhat familiar with these guys, I still make the occasional slip up with this band name. I can let you guess what it is. Complete lack of maturity aside, this is a very cool and unique album that blends black metal with what sound like southern stoner and desert rock elements. There are no mammoth riffs per say, but it’ll appeal widely to everyone from fans of St Vitus to Danzig while also finding a home with people who like drier, crunchier black metal in the more experimental vein. The formula here includes less traditional black metal but takes the genre into exotic territory which never proves intangible. If you’re like me and find most of Deathspell Omega‘s modern work to be more of a display of coordination than genuine musical creativity, then you’ll like this. It’s new but all the elements are grounded, allowing the listener to explore this new sound because he or she can easily digest all the elements individually. Plus the fucking artwork puts most black metal bands to shame and damn near drips with tr00.
The opening track is full of drunken guitar/drum interplay with some malevolent rasps thrown over the top but the album doesn’t really get going until “Secret Ride To Rebellion”. The song makes it clear from the outset that the band is going to employ bluesy chords to power its mid-paced black metal buzzsaw. Deeply hypnotic, the song switches drum patterns enough to avoid monotony.
“They Call Me Black Devil” has a very Danzig-vibe, possibly what Danzig III would sound like if you replaced the Evil Elvis with a raspy mid-range black metal vocalist. The southern twang makes this one very repeat worthy and the video is all kinds of b-horror eccentricity. Just where there are trailer parks in France, I’m not sure. Strangely, the next track “Negative Incarnate” rolls along with melancholy tremolo melodies one would typically expect from a French black metal act. It then 
somersaults into a pentatonic black n’ roll lead sequence. Get some! The title track begins as nothing short of a southern rock sleeper, complete with mid-heavy clean guitars and soulful vocal lines that have the air of a cinema soundtrack. It’s slow, trudging and ritualistic and eventually erupts into a chorus of raspy growls and heavily distorted blues riffing. The instrumental “Chaos Manifested” is the real standout, as it throws the strumming temporarily to the wind and moves ahead with a memorable guitar layers, that once again turn “warm” at about the 2:15 mark. The final song “Horns In My Path” once again returns to that movie soundtrack vibe; clean guitars and vocals; and bleak inflections that lash out with evil aggression at the drop of a dime.
The record takes the band’s previous pentatonic rock exploits to their logical conclusion. I think this will satisfy those entangled in the more creatively inclined French scene, especially since I feel like many of those fans simply want something fresh in the genre and sometimes don’t even care that many of these bands sound very little alike. The bluesy rock edge is what particularly does it for me. The ringing strummed guitars and vocal lines even have strong shades of Monster Magnet at times. Remember Kill Bill when Bud gets iced by a black mamba in his trailer? Well, they should replace the score during that scene with the title track. Like a peyote experience far beyond the realms of sanity, the album conjures up images of a desert occult ritual turned bloody. Though I still recommend starting with Manifesting The Raging Beast for listeners unfamiliar with the band, this is about as awesome a blackened southern metal album as you can find. The real downside is that the instrumentals have some of the strongest, most memorable material and would add a lot of depth to the album if expanded into full songs.
7.5/10
