Labels: Iron Bonehead Productions
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 10 Dec 2021
Tracklist:
1. Returning From Dimensions Below
2. Vigil Of Ruins
I haven't featured anything by Iron Bonehead here for a while now, which is entirely my fault. I was going to write about a couple of early 2021 releases over the next week but before I started to plan that, I saw this new Black Cilice EP drop into my inbox. For those who know or indeed like black metal in any or all of it's forms, Black Cilice is one of the more prominent entities to come out of Portugal over the last decade plus. Since 2009, there have been numerous demos, EPs, albums and splits released and Tomb Emanations is the latest, coming two years after the previous Iron Bonehead full-length release Transfixion Of Spirits. The EP will be released in December.
Black Cilice makes great use of the 7” format here with two songs extending to over thirteen minutes. Side A features ‘Returning From Dimensions Below’, which as a title could aptly describe the band’s silence of late. Black Cilice has always been atmospheric in a harrowing way and it’s no different here. The rawness that embodied earlier releases is still very much there, but with it comes a greater sense of melody and production values. The volume of the instumentation here is ridiculous. It’s both mesmerising and unnerving at the same time, while the screams that reside amongst it all are still as torturous as ever.
Side B’s ‘Vigil Of Ruins’ appears more transcendent to begin with, which is probably a relief after the onslaught that it follows; however, that feeling is soon banished by yet more intense black metal. Intense is definitely the right descriptor here, as Black Cilice continues along a path of self-destruction that extends to those that listen to it. There are moments of subtle groove and control within the song but those moments are still overridden by constant dissonance and percussive madness. That’s not to say that the EP is unlistenable though, because the latter passages of ‘Vigil Of Ruins’ are amongst the best you’ll hear in the raw black metal sub-genre.
It’s not often that this form of black metal can be called invigorating but there’s just something about Tomb Emanations that stirs up the blood. On it’s own this EP will garner many repeat listens, but if it’s a sign of things to come from a future full-length, then rest assured that it’s going to very good.
Prior to the EP release you can stream it's opening song via Soundcloud here:-
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