Mactatus are a band from Norway that has had music reviewed before in this zine and on this recording played a very atmospheric form of black metal with some symphonic touches and this is a review of their 1998 album "Provenance of Cruelty" which will be re-issued in May, 2023 by Northern Silence Productions.
Epic sounding keyboards start off the album and also bring in symphonic elements which also mixes in with the heavier sections of the songs at times. Vocals are mostly grim yet high pitched sounding black metal screams while th e music is also very heavily rooted in the Norwegian style.
Clean playing is also added on some of the tracks while all of the musical instruments also have a very powerful sound to them. Melodies are also added into a lot of the guitar riffing along with one song also introducing spoken word part onto the albums and when the music speeds up a decent amount of blast beats can be heard.
When tremolo picking is added into the fast riffing they also give the music more of a raw feeling along with a couple of tracks also adding in a brief use of female vocals. Throughout the recording you can also hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts as well as some of the songa also being long and epic in length, choirs can also be heard briefly. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics are written in a mixture of English and Norwegian cover Satanism, Darkness and Death themes.
In my opinion this was another great sounding recording from Mactatus and if you are a fan of Norwegian black metal, you should check out this re-issue. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Draped in Shadows Of Satan's Pride" "The Emperor's Trail" and "Providence Of Cruelty". 8 out of 10.
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