FMA Reviews: Bestial Summoning: The Dark War has Begun

Originally reviewed here.

Apparently this is a reissue of a 20 year old album from the Netherlands-based Bestial Summoning. This was originally released when black metal was just starting to make waves in Norway. It actually pre-dates many of the big-name black metal releases of the Second Wave. It is a very overlooked gem that I have actually not heard of myself.

This is tremolo riff-based black metal with some incredibly intense drumming driving things. The riffs are down-tuned giving off an evil-sounding tone. Most of the songs are broken up briefly with the occasional slower moment. This keeps things from becoming too one-dimensional. The drums are blast-beat driven and are absolutely crushing. The vocals are delivered in an Attila Csihar-esque groaning screech. They do not have the same distinct personality, but do have the other-worldly quality.

The songs do tend to sound kind of the same after awhile, but that is certainly not anything completely unusual in early black metal. The songs are mostly shorter so there is not a lot of time to experiment with different ideas. Most of the tracks have one basic riff and a slight change of pace interlude at some point. This is not at all technical music. It's just early black metal, plain and simple.

I was a little surprised this was such an old release originally. It is certainly an overlooked early black metal gem.