Let thee rest no more. “Deep within the fiery bowels of New Zealand an eldritch entity has slumbered dormant…until now.” Ifrit brings you an EP of death metal with ghastly intent. “Haunting Charnel Grounds” contains three original songs, a cover and an instrumental intro. Due out on 6 September.
“Fuelled with alchemical flame” we have KS (instruments, composition) and OS (vocals, composition) joined by session musicians Jiji Aligno (lead guitars), George Prowse (bass) and David Arnold (drums).
Vhan Artworks took care of the cover. It portrays what I imagine to be something that blends classics like Shakespeare with the occult. Skulls and candles conveyed in their humble monochromatic appearance provide an ominous scene. Whilst stripped back to just outlines that are reminiscent of “Return of the Obra Dinn”, the image fills your vision as you not only at it but also through it, providing an image that swirls around and haunts your retina.
Stepping into the album you feel like a valiant cave explorer entering a large chamber that hasn’t seen the light of day in hundreds of years. It carries the evaporation of dried tears and lost souls yet wills you in to go deeper. As you pierce the blackness with only the beating of your heart, you feel surprisingly comfortable that you may never return to where you have come from. The intro is calmly reassuring before realising it a 9 inch blade being slowly drawn over your skin.
When the first track reaches its clawed hand out, it drags you down into the adjacent room. A light fills the room with a colour that has no words in our world. You are belted with the wrath of the “alchemical essence of a number of other groups” distilled into their own energy that rampages through the record. Drums careen rampantly towards you just as the vocals announce their malevolent presence.
Vocals are deep and bold, seething with a coarse desire to get to just sit the fuck further back in your cave and just pay attention.
Leaving you in no doubt that Ifrit wants to produce an album that will leave you feeling like you need to listen to this again because at the end, you should. There is enough “fearsome talents bent towards the destruction of humanity via occult death metal” to provide enough layers that you have to listen to it several times to get to grips with all of it. Their tone is slightly gritty on the rhythm and comes through clean with the fast paced sections. Harmonics score the fat of the music to provide an even flavour. Rhythm guitars slide away on the fretboard producing head-bouncing riffs while lead intersperses solos around to entertain the diabolical air guitar heroes out there.
While we have four original songs on here, they have pulled in a cover of “Watain” by VON. Melodically enchanting from the get-go, they get going into the song to jackhammer their own version with a little less treble-driven than the previous version.
These guys have produced a lot within a short setlist. Aiming to embolden the style and ensure they are seen, they have risen from the fires to produce an EP that will entertain.
- Intro
2. Sites Unhallowed
3. Salts of Penitence
4. Howling Catacomb
5. Watain (VON cover)
Ifrit: Bandcamp
Release Year: 2024
Label: Gutter Prince Cabal / Brilliant Emperor Records
Category: EP
Country: New Zealand
Reviewed by Byron Lotz
