Sacrilegious Impalement: III - Lux Infera

Dynamic black metal direct from the Finnish underground

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While Norway will always be strongly associated with the black metal movement and Sweden can claim probably the most commercially successful scene of the current era, Finland has long been producing black metal bands that speak to the underground hordes with their uncompromising and bleak vision.

While Sacrilegious Impalement have yet to become as well known as countrymen such as Horna, they have issued a release a year since 2006, slowly building a name for themselves with their ferocious and aggressive take on the genre. Mercilessly tight, they excel in a devastating aural bombardment, eschewing many of the murky atmospherics associated with the genre in exchange for the sort of pummelling hell-for-leather assault made famous by Marduk and even mid-period Mayhem.

It’s perhaps for this reason that the group inject occasional simple but stirring lead guitar work, offering a subtle touch of rock’n’roll spirit, despite the strict confines of their musical framework. Dynamics have also been paid attention to – there are numerous twists, despite the consistent pace, making III a more three-dimensional experience than some of its nearest contemporary references.