Erratically charged yet coherent in their conjuration of both beauteous and bleak tracts of irreverent, mayhemic craft Limburg, Germany-based black metal quartet MEMBARIS return for a barely contained sixth full-length album. Two nearly equitant sides with each bearing its own deranged soul-siphoning escalation which bottlenecks at both conclusions, providing shape to the breath of madness which spews from ‘Black Plasma Armour‘ another act of raving lunacy under their name. Notably supranatural in its serrated melodious patternation the psychoactive rush that this troupe is known to bring now achieves fresh stellarly peak on this latest album, a teeming and bellowing call to a void they now command.

Membaris formed circa 1999 and their work persists in waves, evolutionary washes over the course of two and a half decades resulting in six albums. From the raw and admirably imperfect beginnings of the ‘When Darkness Reigns‘ (2002) demo CD-r and their debut LP, ‘Poetry of Chaos‘, in 2004 their naive use of black metal guitar techniques would form into strong wield of Scandinavian and German black metal tropes. For my own taste ‘Into Nevermore‘ (2007) is the most outright impressive of their early releases for its step into erratic melodic muse thought they’d gotten more notice from shades of avant-garde and atmospheric stretches into insanity via two increasingly deranged releases in the 2010’s. ‘Entartet‘ (2012) is a fine example of using dissonance and discord to accentuate an unhinged black metal record rather than awkwardly drive it (see also: Porta Nigra.) From my point of view their early/formative works reflected some muscle-built temperament from Abigor, Mayhem and some manner of mid-90’s Swedish interest as a blender of cacophonic aggression and unnaturally built melodic lines.

I’d similarly skimmed Membaris‘ past discography in review of one of the band’s best known records in ‘Misanthrosophie‘ (2020) touting it as a cumulative exaggeration of their ouevre, another plow through the portal which’d felt additive beyond its predecessor. There is no relief from the wrack and ringing scream of distortion in their past discography, only increasingly molten and oily toned work which builds spastic and majestic highs out of crooked-angled setups and trapdoor drops into dizzying brutality. The ragged, oddly cut riffs which comprised much of their movement on album six was admittedly far more sophisticated than it’d seemed at a glance and that conclusion is the root of any hype felt for a follow up to ‘Misanthrosophie‘. Do not expect even more wilding theatre or extravagant song types on the path carved by ‘Black Plasma Armour‘, this album reminds me of the subtle (and not so subtle) sandblasted magickry they’d found on ‘Into Nevermore‘ while stretching their wings into even more sublimely memorable points of focus conjured on their 2020 release. The core extremes of their collective development work together here on album number seven, all in service to each meticulously crafted song.

In somewhat more plain English, each song here has its own moment of melodic or performative strike which distinguishes them as their own contribution to the ambitious, chaotic darkness ‘Black Plasma Armour‘ ultimately achieves. Opener and title track (“Black Plasma Armour”) skids into place by way of an obtuse riff dragged along its path until reaching the ringing trot of its verse rhythms, the first of several micro-escalations leading to a moment of glorious pause beyond ~4:08 minutes in. There is an intentional conjoinment of these moments, a sense of flow which is largely in service to a tuneful piece while the spray of black metal presses things along. We’re not quite in the realm of indie rock strummed black metal here but we do get legitimate guitar hooks within several of these songs, the hissing sprawl and galloping downward pull of “Threshold of Dystopia” is probably the most profound example while also serving as a point of rupture which the rest of the album pours from.

The hummingbird chested melodic black metal rhythms that spark up via “SIGIL II (Star Ritual)” and much of Side B (“N.O.V.A.” b/w “Poet of Fire”) offer the bulk of my persisting interest per the full listen where the throttled pace of their work leads us to Membaris‘ loudest din and brightest moments. The soaring high created by this pocket of three songs centers around “N.O.V.A.” in particular as one of the lengthier, more complex dual rhythm guitar threads on the album which acts as a ranting peak, a step beyond similar ideas/techniques found on ‘Entartet‘, and a particular favorite of mine on the running order. The full listen blazes out rather than fades and again finds a feature and fixation within the two remaining pieces that close it, in this case both develop some manner of chanted or clean vocal to bridge toward their final third(s). On earlier passes of ‘Black Plasma Armour‘ I’d felt these later songs were less impactful, shoved to the back of the spin and not curated in place as securely the others, but I’d come to enjoy the gravity of the sluice in action and the general faster pulse in passage.

After some months spent with ‘Black Plasma Armour‘ I’d gone from enjoying its chaos-magicked scour to start but soon found the more tuneful side of the album more of a breakthrough take as Membaris balance the scathe of proper black metal with increasingly ear-yanking feature. One could rightfully view the experience as a more refined, succinct and carefully fused extension beyond the primacy of ‘Misanthrosophie‘ though I’d come to view this work as more of a leap in overall cohesion of the forms intended. Otherwise the overall curation of this release stands out for the dark mask-yanking cryptid featured on the cover artwork from Khaos Diktator Design, bleak yet imaginative imagery for an album that is constantly in search of its next point of action. While I’d felt I understood the tone and voice of the band after some time with their discography I’ve yet to touch deeply upon the lyrics/themes of this album in any sense and as such can’t assess the meaning behind these acts beyond appreciating them at face value. I will say that this is one of the wildest, darkest shades of their work achieved yet and a fine addition to their name. A very high recommendation.

---