### Argentinum Astrum: Malleus maleficarum

#### 02/03/14 || Dinu

Argentinum Astrum are a trio from Knoxville, TN and “Malleus Maleficarum” is their second full-length after their 2008 L.P. “Patience is a virtue”. This is a solid fusion of black metal and doom metal and goes on to show just how much the band have improved in the past six years.

Although there are just three songs on this release, all of them manage to pack in a punch. The opener is a track called “I” and it starts off slow and doomy and has a rainy intro and slowly ambles into minor chords and low-key howls to oblivion. The second track is titled “II” and is brutal. It is primitivist “to-the-roots” black metal at its finest. They throw harmonics out of the window and “III” promptly follows suit. Both tracks pack in atmospheric riffs and the lead guitar is also melodic at parts. The tracks seem very similar though and I was disappointed by the lack of variety.

A DIY album through and through, the production values need a lot of polish. But Argentinum Astrum provide a much needed shot in the arm for a genre that was silently rotting away. They bring in a fresh breath of doom and death and the both-worlds approach work well. They try to play to their strengths but end up revealing some cracks along the way but this is a band that never looked like that it stuck to convention and its good to see them go wild on this release.

- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Forcefield/Inherent/Anti-Corporate
- Website: Argentinum Astrum Bandcamp
- Band
- Andrew Morrill: vocals, noise, guitar
- Andy Kohler: drums
- Emily Robinson: bass

- Tracklist
- 01. I
- 02. II
- 03. III