Profanatica - Profanatitas de Domonatia

Perhaps the only USBM act truly deserving of their legendary and genre defining status, Profanatica arose from the east coast Death Metal scene in the early nineties and fashioned themselves as obscene but adept practitioners of the style. Consisting at one time mainly of former Incantation members, including spiritual malefactor and post-modern blasphemic guru Paul Ledney (Havohej), their long trail of recordings and public exposure includes several demos, EPs and one live album along with notoriously debauched photo sessions, a brief appearance in the independent film, Gummo and a much talked about video involving Ledney, a bible and the consumption of an mysterious, albuminous substance.

But in their years of shocking and bewildering even their own black legion, a full-length album had yet to surface, until now. Lacking the high-brow aesthetics or showmanship of Watain and Deathspell Omega, Profanatitas de Domonatia carries with it a deadness and base desire that is part and parcel to its gross enchantment toward evil, translated in a borderline pornographic display of mockery ("Scourging and Crowning"), perversion (the lewd incitements of "God Dethroned in Heaven") and unbelief ("Profanation of the Gods").

Upset by rumbling bass lines and the measured build up of keyboards, the music swells from a pale silence to a sudden blowtorch-like energy contained by Ledney's sulphurous breath and guitarist John Gelslo's taut, mechanical phrasing and horror-tone melody. Some playful editing techniques along with the usual lyrical mayhem are demonstrative of art as a kind of vandalism, chopping Catholic hymns into backward speech, pieced together crudely like a shattered stained glass window. 10 tracks on CD/LP .

[Todd DePalma]

type: reviews    keywords: black metal, lhp009, dei carnifex,