1997 watched the birth of many things evil in San Antonio, USA. One of them was performed by Obliterater and Necroghoul, being later completed by Lord Vistigium and Inferno. The attack upon humankind would be self-labelled ‘brutal fucking war metal’, a pompous way of saying raw Black Metal.
The gathering of murderous souls released ’98 demo Bloodwars of Heretic Supremacy, quickly followed by ’99 Necrobliteration promo. Then, after a carousel of adventures with labels, GNOSTIC agreed to have French Ordealis Records release two albums, the first of which is Evoking the Demon.
I like raw BM, it is no secret – and no virtue, for that matter. But there is ‘raw BM’ and there is ‘raw BM’. GNOSTIC do not really seem to fit into any of the ’positive’ aspects of raw BM – their loyalty to raw includes having recorded Evoking the Demon live on a four-track-recorder, which means chaos and arbitrary aggressiveness. The sound sucks, and the music is in general is not very appealing, starting with the opening scream to Sodomising the ‘Pediphile’ Priest. Then, there is the music itself, so full of BM commonplaces. By the end of the first listening session, there is an immediate conclusion: “I have heard it all before… better played, more authentic, and more evil.’ There are the occasional nice moments (BM always has them), but they are mere fata morgana of an otherwise potentially interesting opus. Of course, I have heard much worse recordings, but one would expect something different when there is a label behind the release. I thought seven years would be enough to grant the band a certain…personality, a trademark image, but no. the cover is mildly interesting, not wholly different from zillions of other BM CDs, but interesting enough.
One never knows whom Evoking the Demon might please, though – and for those who enjoy Evoking the Demon, there is a special bonus: the original CD (not the promotional) features one complete video shooting of a concert GNOSTIC played in 2002, with wholly different tracks. I cannot quite comment on this extra data track, as my CD did not have it.
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