Decayed: The Oath of Heathen Blood (2019)

Of course Decayed released an album last year.  It would be weird if they did not release an album.  Decayed is an incredibly prolific band, one of the most prolific bands that I try to track down.  And so, when I hear of a new Decayed album, I try to track it down.  I somehow missed their 2018 album though.

Decayed is unapologetically old-school in their approach to black metal.  Even though this album was released in 2019, it has the feel of something 25 years older.  Being from neither Norway nor Sweden, it is unsurprising to hear that Decayed exhibits characteristics of both scenes, as well as a little bit of Tormentor for good measure.  Their sound is both darkly atmospheric as well as crushingly intense.  This is raw and primitive black metal which has eschewed the evolution the genre has undergone in the last quarter century.

The album has a number of highlights, including the epic title track and the creepy, crawling "Grave Desecrators".  But seriously, each song on this thing is terrific.  One thing that Decayed has managed to do this time around is create an album that feels like a coherent work rather than a collection of songs.  This has not been the case on a few of the band's other albums, but has been an improvement in recent years and really perfected this time around.

This is honestly one of my favorite Decayed albums so far, and I have heard several of them.  The band has really played to their strengths on this release.  I still have several albums to track down, but it is hard to imagine one being better than this one.