AN NCS PREMIERE: IDOLATRY — “THE SERPENTINE POSSESSION”

 

We have been following the triumphs and travails of the Edmonton-based band Idolatry since the release of their first EP in 2014, a path that has produced both excellent, multifaceted black metal and more than a fair share of personal misfortunes. It is very good to know that the band have persisted, and that they have finally reached the point of readiness for release of a second album, which follows their 2016 debut full-length, Visions from the Throne of Eyes. The new album, In Nomine Mortis, will be released on May 31st via Humanity’s Plague Production.

Even from the beginning, Idolatry have shown themselves capable of both creating incinerating storms of unbridled ferocity and interweaving atmospheric moods of emotional depth that leave bleak memories in their wake. For want of a better word, there has been a “dramatic” quality to their music, a sign of the band attempting to dig deep into primal aspects of human experience and use those as feedstock for their creations, while also manifesting the presence of dark forces that aren’t part of our natural world at all.

These qualities are still evident on the song from In Nomine Mortis that we’re premiering today, but what’s also evident is that Idolatry have reached new heights of fearsome power. They’ve titled their album in the name of death, and death seems to be a vivid presence in “The Serpentine Possession”.

 

Photo by Melanie Dubreuil

 

The opening guitar harmony, anchored by dramatic drum blows, has a coruscating quality yet also immediately creates an atmosphere of bleak and ominous grandeur, as if telling us that the stage is being set for something terrible and tragic. The appearance of skin-shivering distorted words becomes the prelude to a dramatic surge of intensity — the leads still gleaming but becoming serpentine, the drums blasting and battering, the riffing becoming a manifestation of chaos, but no less chaotic than the vocalist’s utterly unhinged shrieks.

The music seems to channel agony and fear, soaring in extremity and diminishing into the sounds of cold and dismal cruelty. The rhythm becomes more stately as the chords ring out and the lead slithers like a venomous reptile, creating a mood of awful hopelessness, before the band kindle a final blaze of gut-wrenching intensity, burning toward a climax of delirium and desolation.

 

We asked Idolatry for a comment about this new record, and they shared this statement with us, which we share with you:

For three years Idolatry has fought heavy odds, betrayal, disaster, and a near fatal encounter with death, itself.
A lengthy cleansing and assurance of our path and resolve was necessary, but through that we have created what we consider to be our strongest effort.
In Nomine Mortis is not merely an homage to death, but a literal new beginning, and understanding about the chaotic nature of existence, and the necessity of suffering to bring rebirth.

The trials of suffering will illuminate the parasites!

Hail Death!

 

As noted earlier, In Nomine Mortis will be released through Humanity’s Plague Productions on May 31st, on CD and digitally. Pre-order info will soon be available through these links:

PRE-ORDER:
http://idolatryblackmetal.bandcamp.com
humanplagueprod@aol.com

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/idolatryblackmetal
https://www.facebook.com/HumanitysPlagueProdBlackMetal/