Bašmu – Vvitchblood

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BASMU is a Black Metal band that formed in 2016 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They have already released five full-length albums. “VVitchblood” is their sixth, and contains eight tracks. The title track leads us off here. Harrowing sounds from the grave can be heard at first, odd and eerie. Then, the full Black Metal assault is on. The vocals are guttural utterances that are vile and demonic. There is a long and scary fadeout. “Majestic Serpentine Temples” opens with the full Black Metal sound and metallic sounding vocals. It’s a shorter song, and the production here is raw and crude. The guitars play repeated notes throughout.

“Crimson Eyes of Djinn” is another shorter song that opens with fat, distorted notes that sound like the are coming closer and closer to you and then…boom…an explosion of Black Metal with guttural vocals. You can’t even begin to try to understand them. “Binding of Shadow Spirits” opens with a slower pace and down-tuned guitars. The album to me sounds like it was recorded with a four-track in someone’s basement. It holds this pattern until a long fade-out at the end, like what you might hear in the waning moments after a bomb settles.

“The Crooked Wand of the Ophidian Craft” is just over five minutes in length. Opening slowly, with eerie and harrowing keys, the full sound comes in just after the one-minute mark. There really isn’t much in the way of “music” here. “The Demonic Oath” opens with solitary and dissonant guitar notes. Once the full sound kicks in, it almost has a swinging rhythm, especially from the drums. This is an instrumental track. “Crystalline Prison of Souls” is a shorter song, featuring clean guitars that sound slightly out of tune. Dissonant guitars carry forth the sound from there, with vocals that are just vile and reprehensible. What follows is just a distorted mess.

“Dimension of Agony” closes the album…an under two-minute song of bangs and thuds. I’m not sure what the artist was going for here. It’s akin to the FWOBM bands out there that started it all. It’s also “True Kvlt” Black Metal, for purists. This is not something I would recommend for fans looking to push the envelope here. As I said, it barely even registers as “music” for me.

Songwriting: 3
Musicianship: 2
Memorability: 1
Production: 3