Artist: Infernaculum / Secret Tongues
Country: Spain / Germany
Label: Profaner Records
Formats: Split Tape
Year: 2025
From the ever-prolific HQ’s of Profaner Records from Spain, comes this new split tape that unites the obscure Spanish Black/Death Metal band Infernaculum and Secret Tongues that has a slightly higher profile but is still to be considered almost equally secretive – hence the band name. As usually is the case with Profaner Records, just as, for instance, Unpure Records from Poland, you should prepare for some wicked and overall gnarly stuff.
Infernaculum’s side consists out of four tracks of which only one almost reaches the 2-minute mark. That alone is already quite telling. The Spaniards leave very little to the imagination and pummel their way through these few minutes in rather barbaric fashion. While this sort of music typically comes with a rough and grainy production, this almost feels like a live recording done with a walkman in the back of the venue – you know, the common 90’s way, food for die-hard tape traders. That can enhance the overall experience and add much to the band’s aesthetic, yet here it kind of distracts and compromises the enjoyability. The tape’s hissing and feedback noise is a bit too much in your face (ears), so much that the chaotic music mostly feels just messy, rather than controlled chaos that is channelled through murderous riffs and merciless rhythms. Perhaps Infernaculum’s first and previous output, the ‘Esperma De Satanás’ demo tape, had an even rawer sound, but at least it emphasized the riffs and actual song structure. Honestly, I expected a bit more.
Opposed to the four short tracks of Infernaculum, their split partners of Secret Tongues offer one track that clocks in at six minutes and a half. But not only is this one song longer than the previous four together, the Germans are at least half as fast as well. Consequently, this one Secret Tongues song feels like it lasts forever. Their style is also quite differently, the band’s bleak and drone-like Black/Doom Metal largely resembles Goatlord and the slowest ‘Drawing Down The Moon’-era Beherit. The band is solely helmed by a person who goes by the name of Apostate Templar Of Astral Necromancy and is also found in bands like Minenfeld and Satanic Black Blood and is affiliated with the Kellerassel Records clique (Dungeon Keeper, Prehistoric War Cult, Morbid Rituals, Forsaken Tomb etc.), Basically punks trying to do Black Metal. Sometimes that works, such is the case with Dungeon Keeper, and sometimes they completely miss the mark. And, frankly, Secret Tongues is one such band. This is neither creepy nor convincing. Black/Doom Metal is something that needs to be played with almost reckless abandon, with feeling and total dedication. That is exactly what Secret Tongues lacks, there’s no soul and no identity. If this demonstrates anything, it is that just a few keyboards and a slow tempo are not sufficient. This one track, as most of the previous work of Secret Tongues, is hardly anything more than a dull fairground haunted house ride. For the real deal, you’d better stick to bands like Funerealm Gloom and Moonfall.
