PORENUT – MISLIVES

(Andy Synn continues his streak of brilliant Black Metal bands/albums with the “new” one from Porenut)

Some of you may have noticed a trend over the last several weeks, where I’ve almost exclusively written about Black Metal (most frequently erring towards the weirder end of the spectrum too).

Looking ahead, however, I can see a lot more Death Metal and/or Sludge-related content coming down the pipeline, so it looks like I’llbe switching things up sooner, rather than later.

It would be remiss of me, however, not to take this opportunity to write something about the recently-released new album from perennial outsiders Porenut, especially since it happens to be a real dark-horse candidate for best Black Metal album of the year (so far).

Of course, that above statement comes with a caveat, since Mislives is a reworking… or a re-imagining… of the band’s first album which represents, in their own words, an attempt to “move [our] work to a place where it should have been in the beginning”.

And while this may mean that some people will say that it doesn’t deserve such lofty praise, I feel like the music, and the passion, on display here is more than strong enough to speak for itself.

Sure, there’s always going to be a cadre of listeners who miss the more raw and ragged sound of their debut (and that’s still well worth listening to, don’t get me wrong), but the fact is that Mislives is an altogether heavier, heftier beast, which benefits from a cleaner and crisper – but not overly-polished – production job that only serves to enhance the power and intensity of the music without losing its edge.

From the thickly coiled guitars and intricate percussive patterns which drive opener “Klatba”, all the way through to the heart-racing, blood-boiling finale of “Poreloop”, this is an album that digs its claws into you immediately and then refuses to let go until it’s wrung every drop of blood and sweat and sheer adrenaline from your body, one where the crushing sonic mass of the riffs and the pure, pulverising fury of the drums is punctuated at key points by passages of moody melody and eerie calm (“Svorad’s Castle”), but where you’re never more than a few moments away from another burst of explosive, elemental energy.

Indeed, the more I listen to this album (which I have been feasting upon practically nonstop for the last several days) the more it becomes clear that this truly is the way things always should have been, with tracks like the unexpectedly melodic, yet unflinchingly visceral, “V súmraku, majestátnosť” showcasing a band capable of painting with multiple shades and colours in a way that perhaps surprised even them, while others (such as “Jonáš” and the stunningly heavy “Monologues”) revealing an even more aggressive side of the group that I’m not sure any of us knew they possessed until now.

Let me close by saying this – if you were one of those who fell head over heels for the likes of Gaerea and Gevurah last year, or are looking for something to scratch that Spectral Wound or Der Weg Einer Freiheit shaped itch in your soul, then be prepared to fall just as hard, and find yourselves just as hungry, for Mislives.