Review Summary: Rip-roaring wargrind.
It’s always a treat hearing a war metal band that understands how to utilize things like audible riffs, sweet guitar solos and bursts of melody. While most bestial black metal bands get by solely on the quality of their caveman bludgeoning, happily alternating between incomprehensible walls of sound and back-breaking grooves, others strive to incorporate more flourish. Empty Chalice have chosen to sprinkle their ferocious debut,
Majesty of Sin, with the latter to great effect.
Based out of the lovely Victoria, B.C. this grimy war metal five-piece clearly pulls inspiration from grind-minded predecessors like Naked Whipper. Tracks from prior releases featuring horny BDSM skits make that abundantly clear, as does their earlier (and to be fair, current) grind-first attitude. Last November, I wrote about the aforementioned Naked Whipper’s underwhelming return after decades of hiatus, and the problems that their album presented. Mainly that criticism boiled down to the band’s refusal to acknowledge that war metal had moved beyond its 90s cradle while releasing an album full of lackluster riffs. That’s why I was happy to hear that although they’re siphoning from the same poisonous well, the music presented by Empty Chalice is without a doubt fresh.
Majesty of Sin is a scalpel-sharp modern wargrind record.
The majority of tracks on this 33-minute album clock in at respectable grindcore lengths of under 90 seconds. But despite their short runtime, Empty Chalice serves up hard riff after hard riff and, oh buddy, do they riff hard indeed. Harmonized guitars a la Belphegor or Nile are common visitors, as are ripping mini solos. At times it almost feels like the band is borrowing speed metal inspiration from the likes of Motorhead, although most of the album is assembled from a glorious cacophony of grind and black and death metal. But Empty Chalice also knows when it’s time to switch up the energy, like on “From Thy Chalice” where they opt for halftime grooves and subtle synths, or the title track which features more traditional black metal riffs with harmonized guitar leads. All of these influences are subject to the prime directive, which appears to be total aural destruction. An order which they carry out to the letter as most of the album’s runtime is spent pummeling the listener into submission.
The production on
Majesty of Sin is also quite good, especially for war metal. There’s no wall of sound for lazy riffs to hide behind as all the instruments are given room to shine. The vocals are impressive as they rise from death metal growls to paint-peeling black metal screeches to barky war metal mids at a moment’s notice.
This is all well and good, but much the same as so many fellow practitioners of bestial black metal, there does come a time when the artists draw near their self-imposed limits. As good as war metal can be, and with some truly bunker-busting acts out there, it’s a subgenre that frequently rewards proficiency over experimentation.
Majesty of Sin is a great wargrind album, but it’s still a genre exercise, however refined it may be.
So far, this year has been excellent for death and black metal writ large, but it’s been a relatively quiet one on the war metal front. That might be my fault as I’ve mostly been preoccupied with exploring other flavors of black metal, but the only 2026 releases that have really caught my attention are Coscradh’s excellent
Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld, Antichrist Siege Machine’s latest demo and Pig’s Blood
Destroying the Spirit. That’s why it’s refreshing hearing a war metal album that’s so savagely locked in. Give
Majesty of Sin a spin.
