#ThyBlackBlood / #Grievance Unspeakable Acts & Occult Encryptions

Band: Thy Black Blood / Grievance
Title: Unspeakable Acts & Occult Encryptions
Label: War Productions
Release date:  14 October 2022
Country: Portugal
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording 

What we have here is a double dose of Lusitanian Black Metal for our entire enjoyment. Well, sometimes I don’t get the purpose of doing split albums when each band could be releasing their own material, but I reach the conclusion that with a split there’s double pleasure reaching to our ears. In my case, it was like this. Hopefully it will do the trick for you too.

About Thy Black Blood. I didn’t know this band before, and “doing my homework” I found out that it’s a one man band from Portugal with a full-length album released in 2020. And this man is known as D. Sabaoth (or Sepulchral Winds) and is also in Flagellum Dei, Maldito (along with Koraxid of Grievance), and is a live guitar player for Corpus Christii. Hey, not bad at all! Of course, my “I-need-to-listen-to-this” inner alarm activated immediately. 

The 5 tracks in this split are well produced, Black Metal with a clean and great sound, infectious guitar riffs… oh go check the song “Thy Black Blood”, with all that tremolo riffs, the echoing demonic vocals, and near the end there’s a lot of beauty in that cold and dark guitar solo, even if it’s so short… Yes, Black Metal can be so damn beautiful… unleashing so many emotions… Also, the first seconds of “Destruction” give us hints enough to expect another outstanding Black Metal outburst. And it is indeed. Dark, evil, letting all demons awake from their slumber and possess you.

Sometimes drums unleash in an almost diabolical way, playing fast and with no room to breathe, like in the track “Thy Black Blood”. D. Sabaoth has a session drummer for this commitment, Funeriis, who really knows his job and provides a great amount of aggressive beats and seems to be destroying his kit in every song. 

About Grievance. Well, this is a band I know and I really like, the first thing I noticed in this split was Koraxid using English language instead of Portuguese as he usually does. Not really important though, because his voice sounds as wicked, gnarled and obscure as always, so I’m not complaining. It’s a different sonority from Portuguese, it’s only this. 

Regarding to music, this man always delivers pure armageddon whatever he unleashes. Oh yes, it’s Koraxid doing everything on these 5 tracks of raw and uncompromised Black Metal, exhaling until the last of his last breaths in every tortured scream, making your senses numb with his freezing guitar riffs, tearing up your ears and part of your brain with his crushing drums… Seems that this man’s creativity and skills go beyond amazing. 

The second half of this split has an extra amount of obscurity, Koraxid vocals sound so blasphemous like he is constantly summoning some beings of the occult. Along with the raw tremolo guitars, creating a landscape of insanity inside your head while you drown yourself in his music. Drums are helping in great way usually marking fast tempos and using cymbals shamelessly, like in “Atlantean Storms”, brutal track! But all of them are, indeed. 

This is a great split, you have two different Black Metal bands on the same album, both sounding impressive and with a lot to offer. For me, it’s a 9/10   Sílvia

Bands

Thy Black Blood
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram

Grievance
Bandcamp
Instagram
Facebook
Spotify

Label
Website
Facebook
Bandcamp
YouTube
Twitter
Instagram

9/10 Epic Storm
**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre**
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
#TheZineSupportingTheUnderground