There are plenty of Black Metal acts out there that claim that they write about Satan and speaking out against Christianity. Well, Columbia's Black Metal outfit Horncrowned take it one step forward into a direction rarely heard in this style and compose material about the war between Heaven and Hell, but in Satan's favor of course. Cases Belli Antichristianus is the third full-length album by this band, and this is a fine example of how Black Metal should sound, with only one endearing quality missing to make it a great album: Variety.
Casus Belli Antichrianus is a good album in the fact that it's composed well and has some real intensity to the music. The only problem with it is that much of the drumming falls under the now quickly becoming generic blast beat style where it's simply a lot of fast double bass kicks and snare drums. There are moments where the music will change up, or sometimes during a guitar solo, that will call for a different drumming style, and there's some creative use of cymbols here as well instead of just following a robotic pattern of blasts hitting the same cymbols over and over at the same time through the entire song. This leads to some real problems right from the start, as sometimes you have a hard time telling the difference between some of the track, such as "Outbreak of War" from "Lucifer's Flamethrower Horde", which really only shows a difference with the guitars that cause the snares and cymbols to change, but the double bass remains unscathed. If the band hadn't changed that up, chances are you probably would think the first track is still going.
Outside of that, much of the album is about what you would expect. The vocals come off really harsh and compliment the pounding drums very well, and the guitars move along at a nice, fast pace that keeps up with the drums without completely overshadowing them thanks to the often creative guitar riffs that are utilized to drive it all home and bring up the replay factor. Out of all the songs on this release, there are still a few that stand out through the guitar work, including "Blackfire Stratocumulus (Pest Arrival)" which uses a simple riff through most of it, but played at a fast enough pace to make it stand out against the music, even though once in a while it may sound off from the drumming or as if the wrong chords were used and were just never fixed. The closing track "Goat's Troops Conquers (Ad Infinitum)" is another great track that is more diverse then anything on this album thanks to the drumming slowing down a bit more often and an increase in cymbol use without overdoing it. The title track "Casus Belli Antichristianus (Pursuit to the Weaks)" is an impressive one as well, even though it doesn't do much outside the norm for this band. This song winds up showing off the drumming dexterity thanks to it's near ten minute length and constant barrage of blistering double bass kicks.
There's no denying that Casus Belli Antichristianus is a well composed album that it actually will cause you to overlook the constantly repetative nature of the album. Everything that makes a good Black Metal album is here, from somewhat haunting and well constructed guitar chords, impressive drumming that isn't one hundred percent robotic blast beats and does change up here and there on tracks when needed, and perfect rhaspy demonic vocals one would expect on a top notch Black Metal album. Horncrowned have composed an album that takes the better elements from both the second generation Black Metal style, as well as the blastbeat branch of the third wave of this style, almost creating a bridge between the two with this release.
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