STILLBORN – Testimonio De Bautismo

Stillborn – Testimonio De Bautismo (2016, Godz ov War Productions)

Formed in 1997 in Poland, Stillborn are the Death/Black metal incarnation of Satanism and/or Anti-Christianity of Mielec. Stuck in the imagery of the 1980’s Thrash and first wave of Black metal, Stillborn makes a Black metal that could easily be compared to Temple of Baal or early Dark Funeral and early Marduk. Back when Death Black metal was furious, dangerous and evil.

With blastbeats charging at full speed, the trio seems to not be scared of anything. With a Sodom cover of ‘’Burst Command Til War’’ that fits pretty well in the album, and songs like ‘’Upiór’’ that shows how they can blast off and get to a mid-tempo savagerie. But to me the culmination of Stillborn’s album is the instrumental track ‘’Apocalyptic Hymn of Satanism’’ an intense entry in the black metal assault of over 5 minutes of mastery and semi-nostalgic Euro thrash grandeur.

To state that I fell in love with this album at first sight qould be an understatement. It is an (un)pleasant aggressive satanist record that seems ageless and despite being a bit too compressed, its sounds are distinct and I love the fact that they let long parts without any vocals in their songs where the band goes at full speed with basis of military drumming and gut wrenching guitar riffs. ‘’Obêd’’ is the perfect example of this and the songs seems to be starting off like a solo and instrumental take but the blazing snare drum of almost grind scale reminds us how simplistic fast drumming is effective.

It’s interesting how this album will be a must to revisit in next December because it announces a great year for the genre and a potential highlight of the year to come.

8.5