Newly reconfigured and refined into a most efficient firing squad Helsinki, Finland-based black metal quartet BARATHRUM extend their thirty plus year existence with a paradigm shift toward the realm of thrashing black/heavy metal on this tenth full-length album. Just how different ‘Überkill‘ is from their most classic work is debatable, but they’ve clearly taken on a full-fledged oeuvre here which is expansive compared to their unflinching, unchanging nature on their first eight albums dating back to the mid-90’s. Since their legacy precedes them in some strong sense here this change of main songwriter might find long-standing fandom hesitant upon approach yet this is undoubtedly one of the most effective, well-rounded records from the band to date.

Barathrum are a part of the earliest history of black metal in Finland but that shouldn’t suggest they’d sounded like their peers when forming circa 1991. Their early pair of rehearsal tapes show a rapid evolution, first as a malformed black/death metal group on the busted-ass Darkfeast demo ‘Hail Satan‘ (1991) then as Barathrum on the unique, slightly deeper personae of the ‘From Black Flames to Witchcraft‘ (1991) tape where the death metal pulse of the drums was still partially there but their doomed-black songwriting was already gaining signature. If you’re not familiar with Finnish black metal history otherwise a quick swipe through other 1991-revealed bands Impaled Nazarene, the related buzz of Belial, and Archgoat‘s first tape all reveal similar weight of death metal but included grindcore speed including a handful of bands that were part of the ultra-prolific era of Beherit (who were a year, three bands, a compilation and like 6-7 tapes ahead of everyone else). These folks had landed upon their own essence on their first tape under this new name and continued to iterate with intensity for about three years before it was time to attempt an official release.

Six demos and an unreleased debut EP (‘Warmetal‘, 1993) would follow over the course of just a couple of years and by then Barathrum were at least known in their nearby circles for sporting two (sometimes three) bass guitars and leading with big black/doom metal riffs delivered via nuclear radiation dissolved recordings. Bassist/vocalist Demonos Sova (ex-Morphosis) clearly had a vision for this sound where two distinct distorted bass guitar tones shambled together in and out of phase which might’ve sounded like a not-so avant-garde Necromantia in theory, maybe a spiritual pairing with early Samael demos, but remained most sonically related to Goatlord (or today, Ride for Revenge) as he’d gathered something like ~thirty original songs and write two hours worth of riffs for a rawly echoic debut LP (‘Hailstorm‘, 1995) and a cleaner production sound for their black/doom metal oriented follow-up (‘Eerie‘, 1995) six months later. Though these were released in the mid 90’s they’d still embodied an original thought and sound typically associated with late 80’s black metal. The main reason I’ve followed the band’s work for many years more-or-less revolves around my preference for ‘Eerie‘, a personal favorite from the obscured realms of Finnish black metal. There aren’t that many different sides to the band to explore beyond that point but this is where I’d planted myself as a fan, so, keep that in mind when assessing my thoughts on ‘Überkill‘.

After releasing five underrated, extremely consistent full-lengths under Spinefarm Records between 1998-2005 the band went on hiatus for over a decade and from my perspective for good reason. Though I don’t know the details I gotta say anytime I’ve sat down with Barathrum‘s discography by the time I’d hit ‘Venomous‘ (2002) it was clear the thrill and the idea had be exhausted by 2000 and releasing what was essentially the same album four years in a row had produced diminishing returns. None of their releases were bad, though, and I’d say anyone interested in their sound would do well to pick-and-choose any of them with a heavy level of redundancy in mind. Of that era ‘Saatana‘ (1999) always stood out to me though ‘Infernal‘ (1997) before it pulled a few songs from their earliest years and made them official with a still-raw sound that tends to make it a fan favorite in hindsight. The main reason to go through and touch every piece of this bands discography is to establish a long-built formula that’d run its course well enough in the span of fifteen years of activity, knowing that well-tread territory before they’d broken that streak with the strangely out of character return for ‘Fanatiko‘ in 2017, an album that was swinging and thrashing in a bizarre way, sounding more like Black Mass Pervertor than Barathrum in the process of returning. As such I’d had no real interest in ‘Überkill‘ ’til I took a second and caught the overall temperature of the recording.

The mean-assed Satanic heavy metal stamping of opener “Death by Steel” (written by drummer Vendetta) immediately signals that we’re getting something to the tune of classic Barathrum from ‘Überkill‘ but written by a more sophisticated hand and one that understands black metal horror, heavy metal gait, and that doom metal is an important part of this group’s greater locus and tonality. Of course the main songwriter elsewhere turns out to be guitarist Ruttokieli who you’ll recall is the maestro behind melodic black metal villainy Sielunvihollinen, using simpler progressions and doom metal/heavy rock-fueled song structures at a (sometimes) slowed pace to convey the occult dread of their late 80’s-’til-early 90’s vision of black metal. This makes big-boss buzzers like “Spark Plugs of Purgatory” all the more surprising as we get a sort of black-thrashing doom pulse which does sort of call forth the ‘Saatana‘-era of the band back into view but with more rhythmic detail and speed than anything.

At any rate this is still a very different band than they were in the 90’s but this particular set of songs strangely fits even if it gets a bit jaunty and heavy/thrash metal chunked-up (see: “Überkill”, “Black Magick Rites” etc.) as things progress. Otherwise “White Red Black and Pale” has a quasi-Hellenic black metal ride to its main verse riff, galloping heavy metal which builds from a swampier version of the main riff which’d be at home on a recent Denial of God or Mortuary Drape record, too. Song after song ‘Überkill‘ hits in this way, chucking a few dramatic 90’s-era Mercyful Fate level riffs out there and letting Demonos carry on atop, typically in a ranting style. This is of course just as different from their simplistic and blunt ’91-’03 style as ‘Fanatiko‘ was seven years ago and really, this time around the riffs and overall style are just outright better written, better performed and cleaner in their overall production values.

Though Demonos got his start playing in early Finnish thrash metal bands Barathrum aren’t necessarily known for thrashing riffs and the use of lead guitars, this might end up being main point of discomfort for longtime fans. From my point of view either way we get a guitar driven and actually kind of catchy heavy metal record under their name which still generally fits the mood and motion of their work, the alternative would’ve been an eighth hourlong recreation of ‘Eerie‘. That said “Dark Sorceress” (and to some degree “Black Magick Rites”) is pure Ruttokieli in some respect, eager to find a melodic standard to break things up with a big Side B moment, and kinda crosses the line into a fully new sound that is notable in its own right but feels alien upon approach. Otherwise the full listen of ‘Überkill‘ is altogether consistent, memorable, heavy and all that but it is safe to say that this is not a retro revivalist record and you should not expect the gloomier black/doom of the past to be faithfully recreated here. As a fan of black/heavy metal I’d generally found this record better written than most in the style, simple and to the point enough to pull off a solid ~40 minute strike, catch the ear with huge and menacing riff before moving on. A moderately high recommendation.

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