Review Summary: Well, it's atmospheric.
It is likely the first and only time we get the opportunity to witness a band describe themselves as a "Canadian religious black metal enigma". Paired with an album boasting the average song length of too damn long, despondent repetition and brooding auras are to be expected. In fact, there is little more to
Hallelujah! than pure, angry, walls of sound. Cavernous production and tribal drum work contribute further to a sound so common in black metal today that the "Canadian religious black metal enigma" become more of a ritualistic checklist suitable for a drinking game of the rowdiest order. Without further ado, I present a fun ditty you can play at any occult occasion that proves to be a fun time for the whole gathering.
For every time reverb-laden, dissonant leads are played in tandem with unintelligible whispering, take a drink. If said lead never makes an appearance again in said track, take a drink.
Gevurah don't want you to know their song structuring is weak so don't worry; every time a riff that played 4 minutes ago makes a brief return to remind you that this track isn't over yet, take another drink. If a riff transitions into another riff without any semblance of transition outside of a sudden change in tone, take a drink. While the band are quite good at altering riff dynamics (especially evident in the track, "Cosmic Putrefaction), it is extremely rare that they actually allow for riffs to flow into one another. The drumming performance is a tad sloppy at times, but I'll give credit where it is due; the drumming is often the only indication of dynamic shifts.
Hallelujah! is quite insistent on reminding you how gloriously evil an atonal wall of sound is, and while this game isn't so unfair as to challenge you to drink every time you have not the slightest clue what is being played, it is unfortunate that the doom-ier elements of the band's sound are so infrequent. There is no space to breathe.
The amount of vocalists you can think of on the spot without needing to use the net who sound identical to
Gevurah's own deserve one drink each. That should be a surefire way to weed out the weak, because X.T.'s (a drink for any name that makes you cringe) vocal performance is about as flat as a D2 recording.
Hallelujah! isn't much different audio-wise; it isn't overly compressed, but it takes so few loudness breaks, and it's full-force onslaughts are so thick that you could easily be tricked into thinking it is squashed. The mix becomes a jumbled mess on numerous occasions, and the snare and bass are often drowned out by the kick and vocals. Every time you have to focus to hear the snare during a blast beat, take a drink. When the band are performing without the aid of synths or atmospheric work, the mix is suitably crunchy, with enough clarity for all members to stand out individually. However, these moments are far and few between, and the album suffers due to it.
Fortunately for
Gevurah,
Hallelujah ends on a strong note. The behemoth of a closer places a stronger emphasis on the band's songwriting and technical prowess than atmosphere, and the ironic result is a track considerably darker than the rest of the record. Had the rest of
Hallelujah taken the same approach to songwriting and dynamics, we would have a potentially brilliant record on our hands, and the rest of the party wouldn't be under gastric irrigation while the best song on the album was playing. This band, without a shadow of a doubt, have the potential to release essential metal. Hiding underneath layers of tropes and thick production lies an identity that would easily permeate the collective sea of average, atmospheric black metal releases. If only their sheer focus on writing a good atmospheric black metal record wasn't completely swamped by forcing a mood and forgetting what lies within the walls of ambience.
