Onto the second installment of my Disfiguring the Goddess review; here we have Black Earth Child released almost concurrently with Deprive. When Argon was asked why he made this second album in such a short time, he was quoted as saying, “To put it simply, during the process of writing and recording Deprive, I realized I wasn’t done, that I had more in me. I decided to make this second record, Black Earth Child, start to finish in about four weeks time and release it as a surprise – two albums, one day. So here are two separate albums. Directly from me to you.” Well, sir, we’re more than thankful for the fact that you hadn’t quite got your slam fix for the year and decided to unleash this second monstrous release upon us. You’re a true slam gentleman.
Black Earth Child starts off with what appears to be some roughly recorded drums that are reminiscent of past Disfiguring the Goddess works and you question just exactly where this album is going; but those thoughts are put to ease when the real production value kicks in and, while its production quality is superb for a brutal death release, you can tell that it was either recorded at a different time or a different place than Deprive because the production and quality just don’t quite seem to match together. Either way, it’s spot on and nothing short of sweet, like I said – especially for a brutal death release. The seven-track album spins for just a little less than Deprive, but doesn’t let down on any of those brutal blast beats and guttural vocals.
Black Earth Child, unlike Deprive, is much more interlude based with the tracks and there was actually quite a few times where there was long pauses of just instrumentals and no actual vocals – most notably in the fourth track, “Lead to the Desert.” With that being said, almost as quickly as the interludes seem to appear, they are replaced with almost startling heavy vocals that can throw a listener off if they’re focusing in on those calming slam-y interlude bits. One of the coolest elements of this release comes from the title track, “Black Earth Child,” where it finishes off from a breakdown and progressively has the instrumentals and blast beats go quicker and quicker until it just ferociously explodes back into full gear. If that wasn’t cool enough for you, wait until track number two (“Admiration of Anger”) kicks in and hits you with the “ripped apart” vocal bit that reinforces what the rest of the release is going to do to your ear canals.
From the higher screams to the low blood curdling gutturals, Argon has truly outdone himself with both of these marvelous Disfiguring the Goddess albums that only further prove that the brutal death genre is in high force and has no intention of slowing down. While you can argue that the album is a little quickly listened through (only standing at 24 minutes from beginning to end), it can also be argued that you have almost an hour’s worth of slamming brutal death to get you by with the addition of Deprive. The only downfall of this release was the addition of too many interlude-y parts that didn’t add much depth to the album, rather made it just a little too quiet and boring at some points. Regardless of that, though, the slam hasn’t been brought this heavy from one man since…ever. It’s unfathomable what this one man can accomplish in the metal scene and only time will tell what else he will unveil onto us. Until then, these 50 minutes of brutal death should tide you over for well into next year.
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