Review Summary: Ugly music for ugly people.
SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! OUR LORD AND MASTER. I ACKNOWLEDGE THEE AS MY GOD AND PRINCE. I PROMISE TO SERVE AND OBEY THEE AS LONG AS I SHALL LIVE.
A week ago I had renounced black metal for being too ethically and morally damning. Well, that denouncement was brief because I find myself jamming to Stillborn Fawn constantly these days. The Denver, Colorado based group released a stellar demo back in 2012 called Abature and it is everything that is right and pure and true about black metal. The recording is extremely raw, emotionally charged and as aggressive as a Dianabol chugging Polish bear calvary wreaking havoc on Munich, Germany circa 1941.
Stillborn Fawn holds the archetypical core values of black metal to heart starting off with hatred, misanthropy and violence. It's a brutal, soulless amalgamation of the three that would make even Aaron Hernandez blush. These feelings are being waved around like a god damn rainbow flag at a pride rally. In the sixteen minute racket that is known as Abature, Stillborn Fawn pulverize you into a broken, steaming pile of humanure. Blistering tempos, gritty riffage and tortured screams are on full display here as the blasting percussion adds another bone-crushing dynamic to the music. Like, if the Polish Bear Calvary was being battered on their southern flank by the Nazis and suddenly a battalion of battle walruses just emerged from the mist to bash in a few hundred kraut skulls.
The music is primitive and violent yet it's not a senseless, questionable onslaught like a bear Calvary squaring off with battle walruses. Seriously, why would walruses and bears fight? Abature is cohesive and rhythmic in structure with a penchant for tremolo picking and vague melodicism. The percussion is thundering through the entire recording like a god damn horde of Nordic walbears with blotted out bass(if there is any) and pissed off, throat tearing screams.
As a straight forward black metal release with no musical innovation or pan flute solos this will probably only appeal to genre purists, Aaron Hernandez or poser dickbags trying to look hard in front of their friends. If you're the latter then you can go chop off your dick and suffocate yourself with it.
