### Ezurate: Eve of desecration

#### 12/08/10 || Khlysty

Sometimes, here at GD, I feel like a Quixote, fighting windmills. See, I may be wrong, but I think that I’m almost the only one here who promotes USBM –especially its more experimental and “out there” strains-, while most other contributors and readers show nothing but derision for the genre. Well, if Ezurate is any kind of sign, I really feel that I should quit trying to champion the shit, because, well, it’s pretty bad.

“Woa”, I can here you say, “whachoo mean by pretty bad?” Well, I mean that Ezurate is the kind of band that REEEEELY tries to sound as Norsk as it gets –and, of course, it fails. When it comes to traditional black metal, you just CANNOT sound like the fucking Scandinavians. It’s a matter of DNA; a matter of environment; a matter of studio wizardry; it’s a matter of Idontknowwhatelse. No-one, and I mean fucking no-one, does the trad black metal thingy better or more convincingly than the Scandinavians.

So, “Eve Of Desecration” seems like an effort doomed from day one. Please, believe me when I say that I tried to like what I heard coming from my speakers, but to no avail. It lacked originality. It lacked verve. It lacked experimentation. It lacked everything that might have made the record stand above mediocrity and a feeling of run-of-the-mill approach towards black metal. It even lacked the blasphemy quotient that makes Scandinavian trad black metal sound compelling. Also, the record is pretty fucking long and near the end I was pretty bored by what I was listening.

Surprisingly, the production is pretty good for what the band aims: it’s pretty punchy and has enough clarity to give the songs enough character and secure at least a couple of listens. After that, though, the realization that this is a pretty pedestrian approach towards trad black metal sinks in and, at least for me, minimizes the fun potential of the record. Look, the bottom line is that, if one likes black metal done the old way, Ezurate might be a choice band. But, if, like me, one likes his black metal more, ah, “out there”, the music the band offers is a poor substitute.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Rotting Corpse Records
- Website: Ezurate MySpace
- Band
- Holocausto Inferni: vocals
- Blackthorn: lead guitar
- Valac: rhythm guitar
- Lord Wraith: bass
- Sir Marbas Daemoneus Hellstorm: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Rise of the immortals
- 02. Invocation of the seven gates
- 03. Noctem eternus
- 04. Destroying divinity
- 05. For I am thee almighty
- 06. Overthrown deity
- 07. Creed of the false prophet
- 08. Blackthorns and crimson blood
- 09. Thy infernal entity
- 10. Salvation denied
- 11. Into the fathomless depths
- 12. The black cross of Berziers
- 13. Jehovah bleed
- 14. Metamorphosis of a lycan
- 15. Came an autumn wind