Vobiscum
Christenblut

The Vobiscum are an Austrian black metal act, about whom little biographical information is available, except for their geographic origin, the year of foundation, 1997, and that they are a creation of the mind of Dunkelfurst, the guy with the sardonic grin on the cover.
The recording of the album is only slightly above that of a demo, which contributes to giving an additional underground aura to a product already openly reserved for a very narrow market; it is known, however, that this effect is blatantly sought after by most groups dedicated to the cult of the black flame, so it is incorrect to penalize an album for intentionally sought-after shortcomings. At first listen, the Vobiscum might seem like the usual Central European black metal group, indebted to Norwegian sounds, and indeed, many of their sounds absolutely remind you of the genre's founding fathers, but with closer listening, it becomes apparent that the duo boasts a strong personality, especially in terms of songwriting.
According to what I could understand from reading the booklet – my knowledge of the German language is unfortunately still very limited – the songs that make up this disc, seven in total, come from three different recording sessions, all three with slightly different line-ups from each other.

The album begins with “Christenblut”, nothing more than a very normal intro with noises, screeching, and the usual ritual grating and unhealthy voices. The real start is represented by “Darlegung & Starke”, a song that pleasantly reminds me of the early works of the younger Burzum – to be clear, the compositional skills of the Count are not even touched, but let's say the atmosphere is very similar – in its alternation of its two main riffs; unfortunately, in this song, as well as in others, we feel the main shortcoming of this group, which is a clear lack of incisiveness of the drums, also due to the not excellent recording as already stated. “Der Goldene Schmitt” with its beautiful riff that touches on depressive black metal slides peacefully through its five minutes to leave space for “Purzelkamp”, a fairly canonical black metal song, which alternates a paced rhythm with very dark sounds with some sudden accelerations that are drawn directly from the repertoire of the more inspired Darkthrone. “Schwingunganalyse”, the shortest on the CD, perhaps suffers the most from the lack of a more professional recording, becoming quite confused towards the middle section until it becomes a jumble of all the instruments, therefore not very enjoyable, despite there being an interesting motif discernible.
Then starts “Vobiscum”, the only song from the second recording session, in my opinion, the true masterpiece of the album and within which even a keyboard is employed to accompany the very raw guitars and the slightly more audible drumming compared to the rest of the disc. It is a long song, about fifteen minutes, whose structure recalls Burzum's experiments in “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”, and with a very touching central riff, where the keyboard and guitar blend together to create a very particular sound that I have rarely heard in a black metal combo. It's the turn of “The Deepest Pits”, from the demo “In Blood”, an episode with pseudo-symphonic twists mixed with outbursts in full raw black metal style, a canonical song of the genre anyway. After ten minutes of silence, there is also an incredibly interesting hidden track, primarily because it denies the discourse made in the previous forty minutes. Let me explain better: the untitled song in question follows stylistic coordinates that, while always remaining in the black domain, even mimic the black’n’roll of the ingenious Carpathian Forest – from whom, among other things, they inherit and perhaps surpass the proverbial bad taste by placing the Twin Towers a few seconds after the attack, in flames, on the back cover – in an outburst of about three minutes.

The Vobiscum have been carrying on a very original musical discourse for several years, while simultaneously genuinely dedicated to themes always dear to black metal, self-proclaimed exponents of the sonic extremism made in Austria. Unfortunately, they are a group very limited by the precariousness of the lineup, scarce financial means, and insufficient live promotion – common problems for many bm bands – and this album only confirms their skill in unveiling high-quality songs.