Review by Sandre the Giant
If there’s something I try to do on the Killchain, it is shine a light onto the underground of the UK and particularly my homeland of Scotland, whenever I come across a band that I don’t know or one that I do that has released new material. I’ve just discovered Mutalith, a progressive black metal band from Dundee who have just released their debut EP ‘The Eternal Dark’, through Bandcamp so I’m diving straight in.
Opener ‘Demised’ has a nice gritty production about it, which suits the grim riffing and scathing vocal performance down to the ground. It is a midpaced, grinding stomp to it, with some nice melodic passages underneath that grim exterior. The EP is cloaked in a bleak and dismal atmosphere, giving everything this sodden feel, but you’re getting a bit of Gorgoroth or early Satyricon in places. ‘Tears for the Deceased’ is a surprisingly catchy piece, an infectious melody follows the snarling vocals and the icy guitar tone into something very memorable and heavy. If I’m honest, I was starting to wonder where the ‘progressive’ part was going to come in here, until I heard gloomy closer ‘The End is Near’, which is loaded with atmospheric, almost gothic passages and excellent melodic guitar interplay. A real strong closer, channelling a little Gallhammer or maybe some old Paradise Lost through a black metal filter.
‘The Eternal Dark’s is a debut that I think shows a lot of promise, and a few excellent ideas for a future direction for Mutalith if they want to continue down this route. Their slow burn, blackened crawl is very haunting, but their grim second wave stomp is also pretty good. Fingers crossed we can maybe get a full length in the next year or so, then we will really see if Mutalith have the talent they seem to have stashed away in there.