Metal’s musical evolution and development in the past few years is a difficult fact to deny, and many devout metalheads, such as myself, will gladly tell you that this is the best it’s been for metal since Transilvanian Hunger marked the end of the line for the Norwegian scene. To my eyes, a large part of the explanation for this phenomenon is the fact that metal has regained a certain arrogance, a certain confidence in itself as a format which has allowed it to once again tackle great conceptual depths, an ambition largely absent from the metal scene of the late 90’s and the beginning of the new millennium.
So Altar of Plagues make an album centered on the idea of death. Despite how off-guard you may have been caught by such a startling choice of topic, remain patient. Mammal’s lyrical and conceptual charm lies in the strange metaphorical vagueness with which it takes on the subject, the strength of its imagery and the almost impressionistic open-endedness of the whole.
It is possible to draw a parallel here between the way Mammal approaches the idea of death, and the way it approaches metal. For you see, Altar of Plagues have made no ordinary black metal album. The core foundations of the genre are there; the hellish screams, the cold, foggy production values, and of course, the iconic riffs and blast beats. However, these songs aren’t so much reminiscent of blizzards and battles as they are suggestive of a strange, contemplative darkness. It is not so much watching a giant beast burn and pillage as it is watching said monstrous entity during a terrible dream, a reminder that it too suffers.
On less metaphorical ground, Mammal is atmospheric black metal of the finest caliber. A balance between the three elements suggested in the tag pervades most of the album, with the band mixing up classic Norwegian passages with clean guitar arpeggios and the occasional Celtic Frost-ism. Though the album does at times begin to meander, Altar of Plagues always seem to vary their riffs without tremendously affecting the flow of the music, mostly through the driving and often changing drum patterns.
The strength of Mammal as a whole lies largely in its fluidity, the care taken in never switching things up too suddenly or quickly, as if to maintain a constant current, an smooth ebb that allows the music to gain a trance-like and hypnotic quality. These characteristics are not only present on the songs individually, but on the album as whole. The album’s two highlights, “Neptune is Dead” and “All Life Converges To Some Center,” are tellingly placed as opener and closer respectively. Though at times a bit intrusive, and pointless, the instrumental track “When The Sun Drowns In The Ocean,” ultimately serves as a set up to this last track. And that is a perfect example of the way Mammal’s is written; the emphasis is on dynamic movement and fluidity, on tension and release.
Sure enough Altar of Plagues is not the first band to carve their metal in such a fashion. However, they do it with such confidence, along with a force and grandeur not often matched, that they manage to make Mammal a particularly entrancing, immersive and impacting listen.
