Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Malvery - Mortal Entrenchment in Requiem (1999)


The first and only official record from Quebec's Malvery, Mortal Entrenchment in Requiem is one of the most singularly bizarre black metal records I've come across. Ever-shifting, seemingly stream-of-consciousness tremolo picking, nervous, almost jazzy drumming, and a harrowing, theatrical vocal performance -- made all the more chilling by the fact that the man behind it, Amer LeChâtier, committed suicide shortly after the album came out -- that runs the gamut from hushed rasps to high-pitched shrieks to aggressive howls to pained, semi-operatic groans.

Track listing:
1. As Drowning Came from Horizon
2. Drowned in a Dried-Up Lake
3. Suicide the Only Solution
4. I Am the Prophet of Fatality
5. L'Hysterie
6. Incantation Hysterique

It is the most sordid, the cruellest
That which makes the shores pile up
Illusion drinks of what it will lose

4 comments:

  1. Yes, this is definitely a strange one. I imagine this is what it would be like if Jandek had a solo black metal project! Dude, you bring the awesome left-field brutal metal yet again! Your blog is awesome....how come I'm the only one leaving comments? C'mon people!

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  2. wooohoooo, what a sick little gem! Right in the vein of Abruptum, early Bethlehem or Todesstoss! Thanks alot for that one!!!!

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  3. I only like 3 percent of metal (yes, precisely, three). But I SO LIKE the three percent of metal that I have to follow some really bad shit, otherwise I will miss some wonderful stuff. Fortunately (for me) your metal here is much more than three-percent-I-like.

    Malvery, for instance, who I never heard of. Woo boy!! awesome!, etc. I'm only dismayed that he killed himself. No joke; just awful. But I think think it's going to be years of playing in my house, anyway.

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