Artist: Seance In Darkness To Shake The Firmament / Orgy Of Carrion
Country: USA
Label: Perverse Homage
Formats: Split CD
Year: 2025
Although Perverse Homage is a label that might primarily be associated with cassette tape releases, the label now seems to follow Altare Productions into new territories with releasing CDR’s as well. Whether this is setting a new standard in Raw/Lo-Fi Black Metal like it is 2001 all over again or that it was simply motivated by the ever-increasing production costs of both cassette tapes and vinyl, I am not sure, but this particular split CDR is definitely not one of its kind.
First up on this split CDR, which is limited to 50 copies, is Séance In Darkness To Shake The Firmament, a one-man operation from the United States from the person who is also behind the great Obsidian Graves. This project debuted in 2023 with a self-titled demo tape through the Death’s Radiance label, a pretty solid offering of Raw and Lo-Fi Black Metal – in fact, it is that good it is not even up or allowed at Metal-Archives. Anyway, if you happen to have missed the first demo tape but you were drawn to this one mainly because of their split partner of Orgy Of Carrion, you have made a good choice because Séance In Darkness To Shake The Firmament and Orgy Of Carrion are closely related, musically. The two main tracks, excluding the short intro, are what the majority of the human race would easily label as unbearable and unlistenable. Even a trained ear might need a couple of spins to fully pierce through the sonic wall of noise, but once you’ve accomplished that a rather creative piece of Lo-Fi Black Metal unfolds. The strident riffs and fully distorted vocals make it more than worthwhile for the truly die-hard fan, but there is certainly more to it than is apparent on the first hearing. Besides musical parallels with Orgy Of Carrion there is definitely a clear reminiscence with a band like Drekavac or Obscuritatem but it probably has most in common with Unholy Vampyric Slaughter Sect. If you happen to be enamoured with the harsher regions of Raw Black Metal, this is one not that is not to be missed.
For Séance In Darkness To Shake The Firmament’s part of this split I drew a comparison with Orgy Of Carrion for both acts have a similar approach of blending the more traditional or standard Lo-Fi/Raw Black Metal with rather interesting and downright creative musicianship. But, it has to be said that over the last couple of releases Orgy Of Carrion is increasingly moving away from these most harsh fundamentals of the genre. Okay, it is not quite Watain or Winterfylleth, but still. On the band’s contribution for this split CDR, Orgy Of Carrion sounds particularly fiery and even heavy. That perception is possibly fuelled extra by the contrast with their split partner, but especially in the opening track ‘Death Is All’ and the closing ‘Beyond Flesh’ the band almost has a Death Metal texture to its sound, not all too far removed from earliest Belphegor for instance. The powerful drums and much more crunchy guitars are certainly to credit here. In the following ‘Unseen Reign’ the band ventures into using electronics in the form of very prominent (dance) beats, which makes a comparison with Unholy Vampyric Slaughter Sect in order for Orgy Of Carrion too. To top things of, the rather clean production, for Orgy Of Carrion standard that is, adds much to the effectiveness of the songs in this particular musical setting. So, again, in good Orgy Of Carrion fashion, the band treats us with some great unexpected surprises.
