Under The Church - Under The Church

Under The Church

Under The Church

by Calen Nesten at 01 July 2014, 10:02 AM

Under The Church is the creation of Erik Qvick and Lars Hendrickson of Swedish band Nirvana 2002. A slightly psychedelic sounding death-metal group that sprung up in 88 and only stopped touring in 2012. Under The Church released their first demo just a year later in 2013 and their self-titled album in 2014.

The album is a grotesque feast of raw death-metal. Intense, chaotic instrumentation infused with brief breakdowns and solos in classic metal style. There is, refreshingly, nothing deep about the lyrics except fantastic imagery of un-dead feasts on human flesh and the thoughts of hateful, ghoulish creatures.

Listening to the lyrics and reading the tracklist, Under The Church seems to me like a concept album involving a dark sorcerer bringing beings from beyond death and earth to terrorize humanity. The first track, “Denial Of Death” features an eerie intro with the guitar squealing in a shrill banshee shriek that blends into a story of a spirit being ritually risen from the dead.  The self-titled track “Under The Church” sounds like it is being told through the hungry mind of a resurrected corpse as it travels through the countryside hunting for flesh. “Back To The Grave” tells how the plan against humanity succeeded and the hell-spawn were banished back into the ground.

Of course, I could be reading way to far into what is simply a great death-metal album. The minds behind Under The Church have been supplying the world with brutal metal tracks since the late 80’s and don’t seem to be anywhere close to stopping.