Cherd‘s impressive raw black year-end round-up changed everything, dividing the war room of your favorite AMG writers into sworn enemies. Without naming names, some promised vengeance on your favorite sludgemeister, while myself and others stood proudly with him, emerging from the dark corners to say, “you know what? I’m proud to tolerate raw black metal!” It takes a certain breed of tinnitus to take on the auditory razor wire, and acts like Lamp of Murmuur, Black Cilice, and the topic of today’s discussion, Pa Vesh En, make it look easy. Coming off the heels of 2021’s excellent Maniac Manifest, the simply titled Martyrs is looking to provide another soundtrack of foggy and raw proportions.
Anonymous Belarusian act Pa Vesh En’s track record is impeccable, nearly every installment providing another unique vista of smoke and fog – but always narrowly missing the craved medal of excellence. Anchored by a doomy pace and thunderous percussion, Pa Vesh En has always balanced its more scathing raw black tremolos and shrill shrieks with a thick haze of ambiance. Split into three distinct movements composed of three tracks each, a unique sound gracing particularly the finale, Martyrs is everything you love about Pa Vesh En and more. Less confrontational than 2021’s great Maniac Manifest, always mysterious and steadied by intense performances, Martyrs is notably similar to its predecessors, but that doesn’t mean it’s faulty by any means. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, even if it’s raw black metal.
What Pa Vesh En does right is soften the intrinsic unfriendliness of its influences by cloaking its rawness with atmosphere. Long the winning formula for this act, Martyrs makes raw black feel more palatable without sacrificing its blackened fury. Intro “A Vigilian Impending Mark” sets the tone beautifully – dark ambient textures swelling into massive riffs and plodding rhythms with noisy overtures. “The House of Pain” and “Among a Stir of Echoes” are classic Pa Vesh En, layers of dark ambient and noise settling atop raw down-tuned tremolo picking like a sick snow. While blastbeats are as omnipresent as inverted crosses for some acts, they’re used sparingly throughout Martyrs, feeling more like a climactic shutter, giving a pulsing ritualistic and surreal feel to tracks like “The Carnival of Eerie Souls” and “Following the Pestilent Maiden.” Notably, “The Revenant’s Overture” and “When the Lights Go Out” are the biggest experiments, neatly tucking stringed instruments into the background in favor of an ambiance-forward palette alongside trademark plodding and shrieks for more orchestral or symphonic flourishes, the latter in particular taking on a “choir from Hell” sound.
Martyrs takes many cues from Maniac Manifest, but is a bit of a step-down. On Maniac, Pa Vesh En ensured that every note is clear and heavy, cutting through the noise, but Martyrs gives no such reprieve. While all the notes and songwriting are clearly and professionally executed, the mix is murky and the production thick, reminiscent of An Axis of Perdition’s noisier moments – leaving little breathing room for the instruments. While this works for “When the Lights Go Out” in its suffocating rawness meeting divine choral samples, for instance, tracks like “Among a Stir of Echoes” and “In the Torment Cell” are robbed of their crispness through this unforgiving density. The strangest inclusion of this album and biggest casualty of the mix is closer “Le fantôme de cette madame.” Its suddenly emotive DSBM-inspired chord progressions are jarring compared to the rest of the eerie and sinister album, and the featured female vocals, both spoken word and haunted wails, are painfully garbled in the mix.
Pa Vesh En takes some chances on Martyrs, with its classic blend of down-tuned tremolo and foggy ambiance appearing alongside. The result is solid and refreshing, but a slight step down from its predecessor. While tracks like “The Revenant’s Overture” and “When the Lights Go Out” are experimental successes, “Le fantôme de cette madame” is questionable – and the noisy unforgiving mix hinders much of the album considerably. While I understand raw black metal’s production is part of its charm or notoriety, Maniac Manifest had no such snafu by contrast. Ultimately, though, if raw black metal is your thing, you would do well to check out Pa Vesh En – and Martyrs is no exception.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Website: trve kvlt, whve diz
Releases Worldwide: May 19th, 2023
