Poland’s Throat takes cues from black metal’s unhallowed halls, perhaps unsurprisingly, and the chaos instilled in Blood Exaltation borders the Signal Rex-core blackened edginess of acts like Irae or Ancient Burial. However, the sound is described as “catacombed, ancient, unsettling,” and the existential occult dread that courses through every fiber is palpable. Blood Exaltation could technically be considered an EP, with opening songs “Chuć” and “Klątwa”1 preceding a re-release of their 2020 demo material, the two parts of “New Flesh Nectar.” While the sound quality between the two halves is stark and impacts the quality of Blood Exaltation, the songwriting is undeniably solid, lending itself to Throat’s limitless potential.
Black metal, particularly its raw inbred cousin, has a stereotype for kvlt aesthetic overcompensation and makes its corpse-painted ilk difficult to take seriously. Throat feels dangerous in ways that few can hold a candle to, such as the aforementioned Cultes des Ghoules or more recent output by Misotheist or Leviathan: fiery and intense but willing to dwell in its existential devastation. Both halves of Blood Exaltation feel fresh, frantic and intense but fluid in jaggedness and discomfort. “Chuć” embraces the unhinged vocal quality of Amnutseba in a feral combination of shrieks, shouts, moans, and howls alongside the shifting sands of raw chords and punk beats that slow down for the satisfying doom-influenced conclusion, while more atmospheric pulses and room noise saturate the negative spaces of “Klątwa” alongside a satisfying groove. While much rawer, the two parts of “New Flesh Nectar” feel like apt conclusions to the newer tracks, with more aggressive percussion and vicious death growls dominating alongside epic and victorious chord progressions with sinister melodic flourishes. Throat do what they can to ensure that the two disparate soundscapes are reconciled through a progression that encompasses the whole album.
The most glaring issue with Blood Exaltation is that, despite their best efforts, the two halves are jarringly disparate in sound. “Chuć” and “Klątwa” are darker and cleaner, with wild vocals and bass more pronounced, while raw black tropes dominate the two parts of “New Flesh Nectar” alongside a more traditional blackened screech with sparse death growls. While the songwriting attempts to smoothen this divide, Throat can do very little to remedy it without a solid rerecording of the New Flesh Nectar demo. As it stands, it nearly singlehandedly keeps Blood Exaltation from excellence despite the more dynamic songwriting of the “New Flesh Nectar” duo. On a more nitpicking level, some passages of “Chuć” are repeated too long, while the intro of “Klątwa” denotes the track as atmospheric before slapping you with a blazing riff. As is the case for this style of ugly music, and even more so for this creaking and groaning interpretation of black metal, it will not be for everyone. Blood Exaltation is caustic and unforgiving, eerie and dense, and requires myriad listens to breach the veil.
Throat ultimately makes one hell of an impression with Blood Exaltation, creating a breed of black metal that remains neatly within the lanes of the style while also twisting it into a terrifying, ancient sound. Its excellence is derailed by the soundscape differences between the new tracks and the inclusion of the New Flesh Nectar demo, but nevertheless feels raw, punishing, and amorphous in ways that recall the genre greats as well as other styles, including Ad Nauseam. Black metal ought to be terrifying again, and Throat makes a fantastic case for it.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Primitive Reaction
Websites: tøø kvlt før yøv
Releases Worldwide: February 9th, 2024
