Hypnotic Blood Art is Prosanctus Inferi’s third LP. Hailing from Ohio, this band has been creating extreme black/death metal for nearly a decade and a half. Their latest record is very tight and well-crafted but without missing a beat in terms of its brutality.
“Dark Scarp of Hell” is the perfect opener to this record. I love the rhythms here and those double bass drums. It’s most certainly an underground sound, but very well produced at the same time. Jake Kohn’s vocals are just haunting on this track – as they are on every song on this record. It’s ghoulish but not over the top. In this respect, the vocal really hits the listener as legitimately haunting. And let’s not forget Jake’s guitar work as well. There are some great licks in cuts like “Pulpit Sycophants” which also features an appropriate amount of tremolo picking. Quite honestly, Kohn’s tone on both the rhythm and lead guitars just fits so perfect here and on so much of this record.
You can check out “Dark Scarp of Hell” at their bandcamp page here.
The title track, “Hypnotic Blood Art” is filled with black metal riffing and furious drumming at the hands of Jeremy Spears, who has been with the band since 2010. Spears’ drums, I’ve found to be rather addictive. When I got this record I couldn’t help but air drum with both my hands and feet while sitting in my office, eagerly awaiting for the mail to arrive – the highlight of my days in COVID 19 America.
“Torture Enraped” is another standout track and the opening is just brutal. This song gets your attention from the first note and doesn’t let go. I just love the song writing here and the tones coming out of those amps.
If you read my reviews regularly, I’m much more in tune with European black metal, but if American black and blackened death bands like Prosanctus Inferi keep putting out music like this, I might just have to start taking a closer listen to what’s going on in North America.
Hypnotic Blood Art releases August 15, 2020 via Nuclear War Now! Productions on LP and Cassette and can be ordered here. Get it!
