Blackened death metal as a genre has been in my life for about a decade or so now when I first got into the music and dived in to the most chaotic, aggressive and blasphemous extremities known to mankind. Prosanctus Inferi are a blackened death metal band hailing all the way from Columbus, Ohio who’s been active in the underground scene for approximately 15 years. I was exposed to this band in 2014 after hearing their sophomore album Noctambulous Jaws Within Sempiternal Night and I was completely floored to the ground hearing the most ambitious, gritty, lurky and crafted releases of that year and it made me become a fan immediately. Now in 2020, we have the third chapter into the band’s embodiment of work with Nuclear War Now! Productions release of Hypnotic Blood Art and truth be told, this is one of the best releases in the genre of 2020, if not top favorites of the year.
Musically, their lyrical content reflects on many subject matters ranging anywhere from anti-Christianity, depravity, evil, desolation and violence. While this band focuses on brutality, technical skill and pounding sounds of viscous ferocity in the vein of Angelcorpse, Blasphemy, Profanatica and Imprecation, Prosanctus Inferi’s sound have the most creative, unique and organic structures where every guitar, drum, bass and vocals in the mixing department is nothing but complex riffing, commendable assaults and almost awkward in a sense where the production here does tend to lose some consistency but if you can look past that, this is a fantastic album front to back. From the killer artwork, sick band logo and intelligent songwriting to the most astonishing layers piling high like fine wine, they’ve absorbed all the black metal melodies but this is more in the vein of death metal but also have that bright blackened death metal touch where it successfully captures the essence and wonderful elements combining to crafted genres and have pulled off quite well I’ll say.
Songs such as The Fearful Pit, Sheol Below, Dark Scarp Of Hell and Void Called As Black Bonds have these sickening, disgusting and gravitational soundscapes where you almost have to play every song on full volume to hear pummeling blast beats, demonic vocal deliveries, audible bass signatures and the guitars sounding like demons coming to haunt you from the underworld has never felt so claustrophobic, frightening and earth-like qualities where you have to appreciate its nature and philosophy what these musicians are trying to portray for writing these dark, seductive and bombarding songs is just absolutely fantastic. But in all seriousness, Hypnotic Blood Art is a powerful, crushing and wonderful display of blackened death metal with the tightest experimentation and matured sounding records Prosanctus Inferi has ever done yet.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
