Artist: Smyrtonos
Country: Bulgaria
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital
Year: 2024

Back in 2022 I reviewed Smyrtonos’ last recordings, as Todorac had carried this project to its grave. Yet, that seemingly was for a short period only as last year the project was resurrected and ‘Endless Fury’ was no longer the last-ever recording. On the contrary even, as in 2023 the band returned with an impressive amount of new material. The result is that ‘Misanthropic Flame Of Black Devotion’, although being the first full-length album, is the band’s twelfth release.

Todorac has always a penchant for utterly raw and primitive Black Metal that fitted mostly in the Raw/Lo-Fi corners of the genre. Yet, with ‘Misanthropic Flame Of Black Devotion’ he largely moved away from that approach. That doesn’t mean that this album has a clean or Abyss Studio-like production, but the minimalistic way of composing and recording music has certainly been enhanced to new levels of self-confidence and musical maturity.

While that might sound a bit presumptuous when it comes to the rawer kinds of Black Metal, Todorac certainly has advanced his song writing skills and that makes ‘Misanthropic Flame Of Black Devotion’ an album that offers a more challenging listen and overall musical depth. Yet, that increased musicality did not at all come to the expanse of the purity and intensity with which Todorac ever can be linked – regardless of which of his projects you listen to. The extreme Lo-Fi aesthetics might have been dropped for the most part, in return you’ll get an album that is more riff-based with rudimentary, yet effective drums and icy, razor sharp vocals. This way the music definitely leans more on both the traditional Norwegian (early Gorgoroth) and German (Odal, Moonblood) Black Metal scenes from the mid to late 90’s.

The raw guitar tone and the overall slightly clearer production has opened the music up quite a bit and leaves opportunity to let the musical talent shine through much more than ever before. Consequently Smyrtonos might also sound more traditional now, maybe leaving some people disappointed, but overall I think Todorac is showing his all-round Black Metal skills, making Smyrtonos his most sophisticated and mature project so far.