First album for Isgherurd Morth.
Since 2015, russians Pitom (guitar/bass/vocals, Kamlath, Stench Price) and Res (guitar, Kamlath, Heavenwithus, Stench Price) work with Romain “Ghoul” Goulon (drums, Sadist, Arsebreed, ex-Benighted, ex-Necrophagist, ex-Agressor…) to create Hellrduk.
The band’s three members built a quite strange and disturbing style based over an oppressive Black Metal, that they develop on five songs for more than half an hour of dissonant sound. Inferhn, the first song, mixes unhealthy and visceral sonorities with a black technicality and a hooking madness, defined by an aggressive sound with quieter parts, then Kultth Tormentr tries to make us drown under a flood of oppressive violence, rhythmed by very dark respites. The band comes back on haunting tones with Nokturahl and its muffled introduction before suffocating under this veil of slowness, which will eventually accelerate while being still foggy. Lucir Stormalah takes advantages of some Jazz influences to offer heady and airy sonorities coupled with violence between cavernous growl and piercing scream before Beliath Todh Grimr, the last song. The energy can be felt, but the technicality makes us go from a fast-paced rhythmic to a soaring ambience, mainly on this final part that borrows from Post-Metal.
If you don’t like style boundaries, listen to Isgherurd Morth. Improbable meltings the band unveils on Hellrduk gives us a glimpse of madness, but above all skills the musicians developed to create their sound.
80/100