Fornicus-"Storming Heaven"

Review:

    I don’t think Heaven will be able to handle this Black/ Death Metal assault that Fornicus has to offer up on their debut album.
    “Storming Heaven,” is a vicious sounding release with plenty of glorious sinister sounding riffs and of course, blasphemous lyrics that would make an elderly church going woman faint. These Kentucky based extreme music makers deliver the haunting and aggressive goods. The band combines traditional Black Metal with face ripping old school Death Metal. I definitely get a Dark Funeral vibe from these guys and would also say they even sound like a black metal version of Morbid Angel. When approaching a song the band really tries to come up with diverse parts that maintain an extreme aggressive tone.
    The opening track on this album is called, “The Pledge,” and is just an audio recording of women pledging their allegiance to Satan. Good choice for a black metal band and soon after the audio clip ends, Fornicus introduces their extreme brand of metal. “We Are Sin,” expresses truly sinister sounding compositions and lyrics. The song has a solid driving rhythm that can be very catchy yet still haunting. The third track on this album, “Pallium Mali,” is definitely more straight forward black metal. There are some minor alterations to the black metal formula and the band even incorporates some splatter thrash riffs in the song. Fornicus’s lead singer sounds gruesome as he changes from deep gutter growls to a tortured shrieking traditional black metal style.    
    Also to point out, the guitar playing on this album is unbelievable at times and constantly changes. On certain songs you will get the Slayer like random shredding, but then there are songs that feature some melodic minor scale shredding. From intense speed picking black metal riffs to slower sludgy death metal break downs, Fornicus really presents a diverse array of guitar riffs. “Into Obscurity,” was one example where I thought the guitar playing took on many different forms. Another song that I find the band did well on was their cover of Sepultura’s, “Antichrist.” Fornicus applied their own extreme sound to a black/ thrash classic and the overall track continued the band’s aggressive musical tone.
    The last two tracks on this album do a smashing job ending a release that was intense, brutal and down right unholy. I really enjoyed the title track, “Storming Heaven,” which was a fierce piece of music. Once the drummer starts blasting away on his kit, the song maintains pure extreme attitude. Towards the end of the song there is this chugging riff section that gets the head banging and sounds very ominous. “The Beckoning,” which is the final song on this album, is about six minutes of sheer musical insanity. Fornicus lays down all they have left for an enormous sounding sinister finale.
    For the most part, I have heard this style of black metal meets death metal before. All these guys think Satan is on their side and the lyrics on this album are typical for a black metal band. The overall sound however won me over, because I am a sucker for bands that mix up different genres of extreme sounding metal music. Plus, the guitar playing is solid and there are plenty of tasty extreme distorted riffs. If you enjoy black metal, death metal or a sound track for when Heaven gets attacked by demons, this is the album for you.

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