Labels: Nuclear War Now! Productions
Formats: CD/Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 16 Nov 2017
1. Bunkur - The Subhuman (Carnivore Cover)
2. Mordor - In League With Wotan (Venom - In League With Satan Cover)
This is a strange split. It sees both Dutch doom band Bunkur and Swiss band Mordor re-imagine songs by classic metal bands. Bunkur chooses to cover Carnivore's The Subhuman while Mordor chooses In League Satan by Venom, but renames it In League With Wotan for the purposes of this split. Don't get me wrong, I understand why bands cover songs by other bands, but I don't understand why they decide to rename them (but that's just me I guess). A little bit of history about both bands; Bunkur is a drone/doom quartet from Tilburg (The Netherlands) and they've released several demos and split, as well as two full-lengths since their formation in 2001. Mordor is from Lausanne (Switzerland) and is more of a black metal/funeral doom type of band. They formed in 1987 at Arog before splitting up and reforming (sort of) as Mordor in 1990, going on to release a few demos, splits, a comp and an EP prior to this release.
I doubt this is going to be easy listening at all. Bunkur is first up with their re-imagining (urgh) of Carnivore’s The Subhuman. Their take on it is one filled with heavy and slow doom, with grisly vox. This song is 21 minutes long, so make of that what you will. As doom goes, it’s certainly at the extreme end of the spectrum and it’s certainly not bad by any means. Given the history of the band they’re covering and of Pete Steele’s (RIP) more melodic endeavours with Type O Negative later on, it’s hard to imagine a song more harrowing than this.
Next up is Mordor’s version of Venom’s In League With Satan, titled In League With Wotan. I don’t know the reason behind this re-branding, but it does irk me a little. That being said, the music that Mordor produces is equally as bleak yet also quite thoughtful. It features a lot of more sensitive instrumentation and a war metal slant, with vocals that consist of deep growls and the occasional use of grand clean singing. There’s a lot of groove that helps accentuate the higher tempo of the music as well.
This split is clearly the work of two bands that both have singular visions of how extreme music should be and for that reason, it is very engaging, though still a hard listen. Fans of the previous work of both Bunkur and Mordor, as well as that of Nuclear War Now! Productions will enjoy this for sure. Less adventurous metal fans might not.
You can stream and purchase the split digitally below:-
Bunkur - https://www.facebook.com/Bunkur13/
CD and LP copies can be purchased here - https://shop.nwnprod.com/collections/nwn-releases
Nuclear War Now! Productions - https://www.facebook.com/nwnprod/
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