VutRhaGroHul
Legion Noir

Archduke, father and master of VutRhaGroHul, an Emilian one-man band born in 2013, debuts this year with a full-length album titled “Legion Noir” (perhaps an explicit reference to the well-known French “Black Legions”?). Indeed, at first glance, this album might seem like a curious example of modern industrial Black Metal; but that's not the case.

One thing needs to be pointed out immediately: this album completely defies the traditional canons of Metal, it is an extreme record with a cold but avant-garde attitude, completely detached from the strict market standards, it will probably be a work of difficult assimilation even for the most passionate underground navigators, and more than one listen will be necessary.

The album, in its 51-minute duration, divided into 10 tracks, touches a vast range of musical experiences from Industrial Black Metal, to progressive Jazz, culminating in the most violent and suffocating Harsh Noise.

The whole is accentuated by a decidedly saturated and oppressive production that leaves no room for air to breathe for the listener, who, willingly or not, is catapulted into a dark world where even the sweetest melody is imprisoned under layers and layers of more or less sick and disturbing sounds.

After a few listens, it becomes clear how the album, as the tracks progress, is an increasingly putrid descent into madness.

“Anexistance Morbid Rapturne” is the short track that kicks off the dance with a pounding guitar and bass rhythm, supported by an infernal voice, a rather unusual mixing (consider that the bass is placed on the right) and a Drum-Machine tempo worthy of a schizophrenic. With the subsequent “Hyperborean Void Queen” the traces of the guitar are lost and the bass returns to the center. Probably it is the most commercial piece of the album, despite the strong presence of stormy Synths that pervade the entire track, given its simple structure and fast-paced rhythm. With “Satanic Scrypt of This Age” the metallic delirium erupts after a short electronic introduction, with strictly odd times, relentless Blast Beats, and Loops on the vocal lines. The Baroque solo in the middle of the song is interesting. “Esoteric Sun VI Black Sun V” is the first long piece of the album, for the most part, it does not exceed the standards already defined by the other nominated songs. With an oriental and majestic introduction, composed of harps and Imperial drums, “Xenoanathem” opens as a glorious piece of Death/Black Metal with some Industrial influences.

From here on, the album becomes truly extreme, any already scarce form of “melody” and/or “musicality” is definitively lost.

“Funeral 6x-9xy+3m” is a track where the most uncompromising Black Metal meets an insurmountable wall of Power Electronics, formed by layers of stratified noises. An extreme piece, where the threads are pulled by significant bass lines (still difficult to hear on the first listens). The following track, “Ohohmimyr”, is disturbed and sustained solely by a chorus of torn and infernal screams, Blast Beats, and electronic sounds. “Into the Ancestral Terror” is a piece where, for nine minutes, noises upon noises, every instrument except the omnipresent bass, is engulfed and disappears. Probably it is the piece where one finds the most saturated, heavy, and extreme sound of the album.

Once you've overcome this entire section of the album, a third section opens, where the noise vanishes, favoring dark yet perfectly understandable sounds, over which a melancholic electronic melody rises in “The Sofference of Dark Land,” leading to the concluding “Hyperborean Void Queen (Ver. II9)” where the author reinterprets his previous piece in a classical and melancholic key.

This album is full of passion, expressed by a superb technique and expressive research, but it is clearly aimed at a small Elite audience. The oppressive and mechanical sound, the extreme variety of ideas and the difficulty in understanding certain parts do not make it an easily lovable work, but probably that's exactly what the author wanted: a cerebral, intellectual, and extreme album. If you have the right dose of patience and an open mind, this work will reward you for a long time over time, otherwise, I strongly advise against it.

That said, anyway, this monster of negativity is just the beginning, “Legion Noir” after all is only a debut, in the next work it will be up to them to confirm or deny the actual extent of this project in the name of “VutRhaGroHul”.