Father Befouled - Obscurus Nex Cultus

October 22, 2008

Reviewer: Jesse

Few things make me more excited than sickeningly nasty anti-Christian death metal and one band that drew up the blueprint for that was Incantation back in their early years.  Their crushing, heavy and slow paced style coupled with deep grumbling growls sent shivers up my spine when I first heard them.  Lately, their influence has come to light in full force in the form of Father Befouled.

After an EP and an exclusively released demo at the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child fest in San Antonio, Texas, Father Befouled put together seven tracks for their first full length titled Obscurus Nex Cultus.  As expected, it’s a full assault on the righteous in the footsteps of Incantation’s classic, Mortal Throne of Nazarene.  It’s crushes slowly and the growls come straight from the bowels of the earth.  I don’t see Father Befouled as a copycat band or a “bastard child” in their image, but instead a pupil in the school of filth and perversion… and some really great death metal too.

Seriously though, influence and “worship” are two angles that one could base their opinion but this is not a style that has had a multitude of followers, so to hear such dedication in such a young band is refreshing to say the least especially when this is the least likely style to be imitated.  So many people are so concerned with technical skill and crystalline production that they’ve lost sight as to what’s really important… crushing the lamb of god and sending his followers into the field of wolves. 

Ok really seriously this time, what’s most encouraging is the amount of upside and room for improvement there is to Father Befouled.  Even though this is a full length, there are still times when I regard it as demo-ish.  A demo that many of their peers would kill to be able to produce, but I digress.  This isn’t a demo.  No, it’s a sinister offering of scorched hellfire billowing from the smoldering cracks in the earth leading to Hades amid the screams of damned souls wallowing in eternal agony…

Where was I… room for improvement, yeah.  It’s clear that Father Befouled is progressing ever so slightly with everything they record.  The songs are getting meaner and the atmosphere is getting darker.  The vocals have that awesomely eerie hollow sound like they’re erupting from some ancient cavern sending noxious air out that’s been underground for thousands of years which could only be the breath of Satan himself acrid with the stench of brimstone…

Wait a minute… anyway, keep an eye out for this band in the future.  The die hard Incantation fans might look at them suspiciously but I think most will come around once Father Befouled etches their subtle niche in this gloriously damned wasteland of putrid offal and plague and disease and...

Release Date: July 22nd, 2008
Label: GasMask Productions

TRACK LISTING

1.  Enthroning Desolation
2.  Idolatry of Cursed Revelation
3. The Golden Rivers of Heaven
          (Baptized In Piss)
4.  Excrement Pastorous
          (Instrumental)
5.  Consecrate the Iconoclast
6.  For Eternity,
          The Path of Pestilence
7.  Beneath the Spires of Nocturnal
          Temples/Defiling Creation

Total playing time: 34:45

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