Reveling in their third blessing by fire, armed with broadly set taste in tradition and splaying their efforts into a seven-headed beast of an album Bavarian black/thrashing speed metal trio BLACKEVIL take notable steps here in generating variety and impact within the seeming impenetrable realm of blackened heavy metal. As a third third full-length album ‘Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament‘ is appropriately polished, considered from all angles yet still breaks through their pro-level craft with venom and vigor. Sure to impress folks looking for a strong point of view and taste able to mutate, remain amorphous in the face of breakthrough ideas the ingenuity of this record is well-matched with a much improved overall render.

Blackevil formed as a trio circa 2013 featuring vocalist/bassist Abyss who’d been involved in various black metal projects in the mid-to-late 2000’s, guitarist Deathinfektor who was similarly involved in black metal bands (Volcanic, Ravenholm) and for their first demo Hellbastard of Front Beast and Nocturnal (Germany) was their drummer. The focus of the band’s style was blackened speed metal similar to (earlier) Hellripper on the first half of said demo (‘Hail the Cult‘, 2015) and more of a traditional heavy metal inflected sound on the second half a la Witching Hour or (especially) Desaster. The early signature of the band from that point would trade between those styles, eventually leaning toward a more thrashing version of their heavy metal inspired craft. While that ripping energy made for an impressive debut LP (‘The Ceremonial Fire‘, 2017) that’d carried over the top shrieking vocals and a style which was clearly taking direct cues from 80’s heavy metal and over the top thrash metal, German and otherwise. I think I’d mentioned Martyr (Netherlands), Cirith Ungol and Nocturnal Witch when I’d given short review of their 2020 follow up ‘Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire‘ in terms of their riffs, vocals, and black metal integration respectively finding the experience iterative upon the last in terms of sound but far more memorable for more elaborately built songwriting. That ‘epic’ sound reserved for countrymen Witching Hour (among others) suited their craft well and that’d build expectations for what ‘Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament‘ would be.

The frantic noisome clash of the first two albums from Blackevil gave them a noxious, unpolished touch that’d felt underground in texture but didn’t entirely fit ‘Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire‘ and its refined ‘epic’ thrashing black metal style which’d feature some technical reach over the course of its ever-milling development of phrase. This follow-up is even busier in terms of its compositions, not only packed with riffs but intensely knotted tarantella forms which sway and dance just short of stiff-necked neoclassic shapes. The intense level of care put into the guitar work this time around calls for ‘Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament‘ and its sound design to reflect its attack with great clarity, setting the bass at waist level pulse, the drums pushing the rhythm section up to the neck level in resonance and positioning the guitars a few feet shy of center in order to lord over the mix as prime mover, lifting the rasp and hailing vocals to roar down from the rafters when calling for group shouts. As we step into “Divine Forces” and the band’s lyrical themes call for sky-level action this sound design fills the space brilliantly without clobbering away any one performer. Naturally this is tuned even more squarely for traditional heavy/speed metal action and you’ll understand that sentiment as we push just a couple of songs deep into its fray.

How far do they go pressing against the gates of iron? We are in the cemetery of ancient heavy metal within minutes, bursting through via the arguable ‘epic’ heavy metal values of “Beneath This Pentagram” which features some later NWOBHM dual guitar theatrics, somewhat raw-throated clean vocals in multiple layers. This is a step beyond toying with this style a bit in the past, taking that traditional heavy metal inspiration and almost fully setting aside their thrash metal rabidity to carry this song through properly. In fact they’re right on the edge of sounding like a different band entirely. This is one piece in a series which do well to change up the vocal timbre, the number guitar layers, the pacing, and generally not deliver the same song twice in a row as ‘Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament‘ plays out. “Praise the Fire for the Sacrament” for example has more of a power-thrash metal blaze to its movement, stamping out a double-bass kicked gallop throughout while the vocals rest in more of a blackened shrieking pocket. This segues into “The Gladiator” perfectly but doesn’t necessarily repeat that same formula in any sense, giving us more of an 80’s arena metal anthem.

Granted ‘Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire‘ played around with song types, movements and pacing in a similar way but this time around Blackevil have done well to give some extra space for riff ideas to breathe while allowing the rhythm section to be a busy and tightly wound as they’d like giving the record an almost prog-thrashing estrangement on certain songs. Not every moment ends up kicking out an earth-shattering statement but I doubt many fans of black-thrash or epic heavy/speed metal in various states of combined attention will find much to dislike in terms of the variety and reasonably wild personage available to these blackened heavy metal songs. The only one which’d vexed me in terms of its overall effect was the black metal centered ~11 minute saunter-and-blast of closer “Towards the Carpathian Winter Battle”, a song which’d never found any meaningful escalation in its riffcraft or rhythmic footing, simply dirging at a slow gallop for the sake of showcasing a different form of fusion. While the varietal nature of this album was upheld to the very last song the closer always felt like an anticlimax, or, a mildly unsatisfying endpoint.

Though I wasn’t thrilled out of my brains on the way out the first several songs on this latest Blackevil record hit in new and impressive ways one after another, even when a riff might miss or a bassline over-draws its step it is still commendable that ‘Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament‘ has such an active brain behind the controls compared to the typified and traditional treatments of blackened heavy, speed and thrash metal. It isn’t that this album lacks its tributes to tradition but that they’ve dug deeper than one single pocket for their songcraft, utilizing a rich understanding and taste in song types to craft a varietal and memorable ‘epic’ black/heavy metal record. These guys have only improved with each recording and at this point album number three feels like a profound high point in terms of both authorship and fitting sound design. A high recommendation.

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