Black Fucking Cancer / Gloam : Boundless Arcane Invokations

    Sentient Ruin deals out yet another sinister sounding release, this time bringing together two venomous black metal entities that know how to deliver some malevolent sounding music. Black Fucking Cancer and Gloam prove to be masters of the extreme metal dark arts by taking listeners on a hellish journey through realms of atmospheric terror on their spilt, “Boundless Arcane Invokations.”

    I find both acts to be skilled in their songwriting styles and even though each band only contributes one song to the split, they deliver some strong dynamic sounding cuts of extreme metal ferocity that do not disappoint. Also, both bands use the same name for their songs, which  also happens to be the name of this split. There seems to be an unholy unity between these two acts and their styles really compliment each other quite well. In terms of production, both bands construct monumental sounding atmospheres that convey a ghastly world of catastrophic horror.

    San Jose’s, Black Fucking Cancer, unleashes a malefic assault that pulls listeners into a realm of total darkness on their side of the split. I might be a bit biased since I was born in San Jose, however, Black Fucking Cancer is a band that really knows how to compose a vicious sounding landscape of black metal savagery. The opening part of the song spews out these ominous noises that eventually get swallowed up by a blanket of distortion and blistering riffs. Their singer provides tortured growls of demonic sounding agony as the other musicians hammer away at their instruments. Overall, the band executes an unforgiving vision for about twenty-two minutes, but never loses their potency or ability to keep listener’s intently listening.

    The other band on the split is, Gloam, a Santa Cruz based black metal act that wastes no time by fiercely jumping into a flurry of blasphemous riffs. As the band’s drummer lays down some raw sounding rhythms the guitarist and bassist take the opportunity to hack away at their instruments with no remorse. Gloam captures that old school black metal sound, although they are able to pay homage to old school black metal without sounding gimmicky, or falling into that pit of generic black metal rubbish. Once again, solid production and an attention to detail in terms of songwriting helps shift them past most of your modern bands who can dress the part, but can’t write songs to save their lives. 

    This split proves to be another brilliant Sentient Ruin release that sounds extremely well done from start to finish. I think the label did a great job bringing together two ruthless and impressive black metal bands. There is no denying that Black Fucking Cancer and Gloam are bands who have tremendous talent and should not be overlooked. I hope people really check out this split, because this is the type of release that I want to see more of from the metal community.



Check out the split below:

Sentient Ruin FB:

https://www.facebook.com/SentientRuin/

Gloam FB:

https://www.facebook.com/gloamshroud/

Black Fucking Cancer bandcamp:

https://blackfuckingcancer.bandcamp.com/