Artist: Sacellum Luciferi
Country: Finland
Label: Satanik Requiem / Vermines Pestifera
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
Finland is home to a great treasure trove of ridiculously obscure Black Metal. The true connoisseur of underground Black Metal is always served with the best of the best when diving into Finland’s secrets, but that’s basically always been the case. There’s lots of bands that never or hardly surfaced and only the names can be read in certain logs or interviews. One of those enigmatic obscurities is definitely Sacellum Luciferi. Virtually nothing is known about this band, not when they started, who is or was in there, whether they are still active or not… And most importantly, their music is extremely hard to come by – if possible at all. This compilation LP offers two demos that allegedly date back to 2004, yet everything is very hard to verify. Annoying for savvy collectors of useless information and trivia, but it surely adds to the mystique.
The two demos on ‘Burial Spirits…Upon A Luciferian Altar Of Sacrifice…’ are said to be known as ‘Burial Rites In Blasphemy’ and ‘As Unclean Spirits Contaminate The Earth’. I am not entirely sure, but it could very well be that both demos have never been publicly released, or at least not spread any further than a few close contacts. Never have I seen any cover art or other information on those, let alone heard any music. So, that alone makes ‘Burial Spirits…’ an interesting and very welcome release.
Music wise Sacellum Luciferi is not offering much in terms of originality, it is clear that this Finnish band, from this very early stage on, mainly aimed for rock solid traditional Black Metal. That means, riff-heavy and with a evident emphasis on a raw and piercing production. Resemblances are often made with the French collective around Mütiilation and Belkètre. And not for no reason, the Les Légions Noires vibe is felt throughout the full 30 minutes of both demo recordings. In that regard, Sacellum Luciferi were amongst the Finnish Black Metal pioneers that all clearly drew inspiration from those French bands. Keeping in mind these recordings date back to the early 00’s, a time when a lot, if not most, of the Finnish Black Metal bands were all wearing the same mean and gritty sound that typified the mid-90’s French Black Metal sound. Consequently, Sacellum Luciferi sounds primarily like a cross between early Satanic Warmaster/Horna and the more back-to-basics feel of Warloghe, all with a well-balanced sense of chaos and overall harshness.
