Argentinum Astrum 'Malleus Maleficarum' 12"LP

Although there are just three songs on this release, all of them manage to pack in a punch. The opener is a track called “I” and it starts off slow and doomy and has a rainy intro and slowly ambles into minor chords and low-key howls to oblivion.
The second track is titled “II” and is brutal. It is primitivist “to-the-roots” black metal at its finest. They throw harmonics out of the window and “III” promptly follows suit. Both tracks pack in atmospheric riffs and the lead guitar is also melodic at parts. The tracks seem very similar though and I was disappointed by the lack of variety.

A DIY album through and through, the production values need a lot of polish. But Argentinum Astrum provide a much needed shot in the arm for a genre that was silently rotting away. They bring in a fresh breath of doom and death and the both-worlds approach work well. They try to play to their strengths but end up revealing some cracks along the way but this is a band that never looked like that it stuck to convention and its good to see them go wild on this release.

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