Filii Nigrantium Infernalium – Hostia
4 min read
Band: Filii Nigrantium Infernalium
Title: Hostia
Label: Osmose Productions
Release date: 25 May 2018
Country: Portugal
Format reviewed: 320kbit mp3
Filii Nigrantium Infernalium (which shall be referred to as FNI for the sake of convenience) are a black metal band that marries elements of thrash and classic 80s metal to their sonic repertoire who have been around since 1992 when they first released their “Os Métodos do Pentagrama” demo (roughly translated into English as “The Methods of the Pentagram”). Currently, they have four full length albums, 3 EP’s, a compilation album, and their demo as mentioned earlier. They are a five piece consisting of: Helregni on bass guitar, Mantus and Iron Fist on guitar, founder Belathauzer on vocals and rhythm guitar, and lastly Arrno Maalm on Drums. Relatively little is known about this band in English speaking countries, which will hopefully change due to being signed by Osmose and the release of their latest album in the form of “Hóstia”. Yours truly is reliably informed that the band are well known in underground metal circles in their native land of Portugal, and quite frankly it’s about time that the rest of the world knows more about them.
It has to be said that “Hóstia” gets off to a very fine start indeed, however the album cover can polarise opinions as it can be perceived as being “very metal” or unwittingly comical. The cover art features a somewhat curvy arsed triple headed nun type character impaled on some form of pole, that has pigs with bat wings and god knows whatever madness is going on. In all honestly, it actually prepares you for how crazy bonkers the whole album is as a collective whole. FNI are a black metal band like no other blending quite a few influences together – notably Sodom, Bathory, Venon, miscellaneous NWOBHM styles, Motorhead, Judas Priest as first discovered upon listening to “Fellatrix”. This time around, there appears to be an element of maturity to the albums sound and has more polish compared to their previous output. “Pó” in particular reminds the listener of Impaled Nazarene as a reference point while “Virtudes da Prostração” features falsetto vocals into the mix that are almost comical to listen to. In fact, you can almost visualise Belathauzer as an Adrian Edmonson-esque character circa “Bad News”, as he shrieks lyrics in Portuguese sounding completely unhinged and utterly barking mad but with an element of seriousness and passion to the proceedings. With tracks such as “Smrt / Nada” you can tell that the band take their art very seriously, not remotely caring about the money made (or lost) which as a consequence is deeply infectious to listen to. There are few things worse in the world where a band loses their passion and care more about the money, and the band’s focus is definitely centred around stirring the listener and having a bit of a laugh.
“Autos de Fé” evokes a thrash metal spirit that is a hook laden stomp fest that features all what you could ever want: A NWOBHM style bass rumble with duelling solos and a punk like ethic; while the title track feels like Accept has been processed through some form of a black metal filter, with a liberal sprinkling of King Diamond-esque silliness and terrace chanted vocals that is absolutely massive. On paper, it sounds as if there’s far too much going on in the music with the various styles and influences that is in the sonic mix – but the execution and how the whole package works is nothing short of extraordinary and deeply infectious. To some listeners, FNI may sound far too weird to process – but if you persevere with the album it will suddenly click, and before you know it you’ll find it burned into your brain. Someone, somewhere, needs to get these lads on a big tour out of their native country (Damnation Festival in Leeds perhaps?) as they will gain large scores of new friends and will explode into the consciousness into the larger areas of the metal underground – and deservedly so, as it’s long overdue. 8/10 Goth Mark
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