Black Grail – VIIII LP (White Vinyl)
Black Grail – 'VIIII' LP
140g White vinyl edition limited to 150 copies
New 2022 mini-album from one of the great gems of the oft-overlooked Chilean black metal underground. Creepy and creeped-out, the five-track/26-minute work maintains all the magick and mysticism of their earlier work, but is now cast in a clearer (black)light that does nothing to diminish their sulfurous intensity. Alternately ritualistic, regal, and rowdy, BLACK GRAIL wind their way through a wealth of treacherous and terrorizing corridors here, establishing foggy atmosphere one minute and then bloody headbanging the other, keeping the listener engaged and on their toes with where the Chileans will lead them next. It's a distinctly Chilean style of black metal still, but VIIII could equally sit comfortably alongside the cult likes of Funereal Presence, Cultes des Ghoules or, further back, Germany's mythical Martyrium.
