review: Impurity -- old black metal party like it's 1996

Impurity

Ritual Chamber

Greyhaze Records [vinyl/cassette remastered reissue]

6 November 2020

01 The Call 4:28

02 Baphomet Shield 4:51

03 Dilacerating The Gospel 3:13

04 Mystical Woman 4:58

05 Untitled 2:12

06 I.A.O. Treasury 4:26

This 1996 album by the Brazilian black metal brutes now gets the special treatment by Greyhaze Records: "carefully restored from original master tapes remaster, housed in a lavish package including a gatefold sleeve, double insert and poster. The album is also presented as a 7-panel J-card cassette." Here's a question: Should the fan bother with an album from 1996? If a person is interested in midpaced black metal with a bestial heaviness, a certain cavepeople black metal brutality, then this old work might just be a better listen than expected. The album is very accessible because it goes at an easy midtempo style that allows for the listener to understand the music quickly, and the brutality and heaviness gets its point across efficiently. Old? Yes. Barbaric? Yes. What’s not to like?!

Into the Ritual Chamber by Impurity