Prosanctus Inferi - Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations [2010]

Prosanctus Inferi are perhaps one of the more interesting black/death bands that are releasing material today. While many other bands focus on the brutality and pounding ferocity that was first shown in bands like Blasphemy, Prosanctus Inferi lean towards more complex riffing and awkward structures. The duo obviously have their roots absorbed deep within black metal soil, because there’s less death metal that goes around on this album, and when it does show itself up, it’s always conjured in its most evil and vile form, a la Incantation. With the vocals drowned out almost completely, the task of performing their music is left to the guitars and drums, both of which play an immense role in the development of the record. Despite the short songs (never going over the three minute mark), they cram up lots of material into individual tunes, making for lots of different things going on and seemingly being all over the place as “Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations” tumbles and fights through hostile and barbaric war ground.

The cover art is a perfect representation of what their music sounds like: i.e. awkward riffing with lots of different phases in songs, sounding at times a bit incoherent and out of place. Thankfully, as previously stated, all of the songs are kept at a short length, so the listener won’t be left entirely overwhelmed. However, their music does tend to become quite tiresome and repetitive after having listened to five or six tunes, and after the whole twenty-five minute journey of thirteen resilient songs is over, the listener is sure to be left feeling worn out and confused. Black Witchery-esque tremolo riffs are the main sight on this album, woven together with some eerie and discordant passages and other Incantation-styled sweltering death metal riffs. There is almost nothing ‘catchy’ about this album, so if catchy is what your looking for, look elsewhere, get out while you still can and avoid this album at all costs. Unholy riffing is wrought in incredibly complex and fast patterns, leaving no room for the listener to take a break from the demonic slaughter and exaltation of sinful might, with song names that probably very few are able to pronounce properly. Dissimilarly to how other black/death bands like their production, the sound in “Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations” is actually quite discernible albeit encaged and somewhat stale.

The drums are seldom, if ever found doing something that isn’t incredibly fast and exhausting, always on par with the tremolo riffs and blasting their way to oblivion. Lots of crashes and changes from ride to hi-hat are seen, typically when the guitars move on to do something else as well. The vocals are as low as possible in the mix, with the guitars way up front, and they offer gritty, low and gloomy whispers that are hardly present in comparison to the other instruments. All in all, I found “Pandemonic Ululations…” to be a jumbled listen, and while I was very surprised at what their music had in store for me, it did have some great songs among other worse ones; though, it is certainly an interesting listen and a pleasing one for those who are avid fans of black/death metal, especially weirder bands like Portal and Impetuous Ritual, both of which are similar in terms of both peculiarity and awkwardness. A tormenting, disfiguring yet somewhat enjoyable listen.

75/100

-SmithMetal84