Exclusive Track Premiere: Israthoum - Deathmasks Inheritor"

April 23, 2015

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The long, winding build-up in a black metal song is fine, but it’s also nice when the song starts hitting its stride right away. In the case of this new song by black metal trio Israthoum, that’s the case. This track premiere is for the last song on a three-song EP called Antru Kald set to release on April 30 (Walpurgisnacht, not coincidentally) by Daemon Worship Productions. The band says, “It is a dive into the Abyss. A threefold infernal codex. Our ultimate ode to Darkness.” Antru Kald comes in a trifold digisleeve and will eventually be released as a one-sided MLP with a laser etching.

We last heard from Israthoum, which originated in Portugal but at last account resided in the Netherlands, in December 2014 on a 7-inch split with Chalice of Blood. The band’s second full album, Black Poison and Shared Wounds dropped three years ago. I don’t think that album got a lot of critical attention but it should have. And though the band members originate in Portugal, they wear their affection for Nordic mythology and influence on their sleeve—if my parsing of the album title is correct, it means something like “frozen male warrior.”

The trio, which goes by the names VxInfr, Arvath and W.uR, stated that Antru Kald was originally intended as a side project of Arvath and W.uR that they began working on 17 years ago. This music was recorded over several years, with help from Mories of Gnaw Their Tongues, who also created the cover art. The mastering was once again done by Kark of Dødsengel. No explanation was forthcoming for why it’s being released now, but given the band’s early, raw black metal style this is an interesting glimpse at what they were crafting a decade and a half ago. This track, “Deathmask’s Inheritor,” is not so different than their recent work—pulverizing drums that kick in early and whirlwinds of guitar noise that surround unholy (yet clean and straightforward) vocal work spewing blasphemy. It’s indicative of the immediate and ferocious sound of this Portu-Norse trio.

—Vanessa Salvia

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