Formed in 1994, Salacious Gods released a string of three records from 1999 to 2005, evolving their brand of black metal from the melodic and synth-heavy Askengris to the relentless no-holds-barred assault of Piene. After building their own recording studio, founding guitarist Iezelzweard refashioned the band from past members and new talent alike. While bedrock elements of Darkthrone and Mayhem are present here, especially in the vocal production, the band hews closer to the ritualistic melody-driven stylings of Satyricon or Watain. Taken in the context of their discography, Oalevluuk feels less frenetic and more ominous. The instruments on Oalevluuk are all clear and balanced by a modern production touch while the vocals remain cavernous and pushed back in the mix, a blend of old and new that works in the band’s favor. The drums push the boundaries of the style with references to punk and even blues (“Devotion,” “Towards the Darkening Light”). But with almost an hour of blasphemy spread across nine tracks, fatigue is a looming shadow that requires deft composition and diversity of sound to avoid.
Oalevluuk is competently executed, but it’s often boilerplate black metal, and there’s a lot of it to go around. The album’s opening salvo is promising enough with tight runtimes and hairpin shifts but the middle sags under the 10-minute indulgence of “Honor Him,” bookended by forgettable blasters (“Gnosis of the God Impure,” “Sulphur Mingled With Poison”). Repeat listens help to pick out distinguishing factors and orient the listener, but there’s only so much one can do with the standard black metal format before it all starts to blur together. Tempo is an unexpected problem here as well, as Salacious Gods has largely replaced the high-BPM furor of Piene with more mid-tempo tracks, both lengthening and defanging them in the process. The tremolos and blasts are still there, but they’re older, wiser(?), and less dangerous.
When Oalevluuk doesn’t confine itself to a strict interpretation of second-wave, things work out for the better. Elements of Black Sabbath-laced doom are strewn throughout, often setting up more traditional black metal passages (“Rise, Oh Horned One Rise,” “Bloedkloete”). “Devotion” pulls from black-n-roll with its rock-inflected rhythms, and “Towards The Darkening Light” spends so much time in rollicking triplet land that it’s like Alestorm donning corpse-paint in a fjord. Well-crafted atmospherics on a number of tracks give respite to the listener’s ears and cultivate the dark soundscape central to the band’s identity (“Morbid Revelations in Blood and Semen,” “Oalevluuk”). These deviations from the standard template prove that Salacious Gods has the chops to forge new ideas from well-trodden tropes. If only this were the rule and not the exception.
I struggled mightily with scoring Oalevluuk. Second-wave is replete with records that are poorly performed or recorded under the guise of trveness, and this album is certainly not that. Scene veterans that know their way around their instruments, Salacious Gods should be commended for enduring a near-two-decade gap to create an album that aims to stand beside their lofty contemporaries. But this is not the ’90s, and adherents to the Helvete sound need more to stand out amongst today’s frostbitten masses. Hopefully, having shaken off the oalevluuk, the “Gods from Drenthe” can explore even further into the edges of their sound and bring Dutch black metal into a brave new world.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Hammerheart Records
Websites: Facebook | Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: October 6th, 2023
