I had a plan a while back to do a sort of series where I'd choose countries that are notable in terms of population but have comparatively very little impact on metal at large (so basically everywhere except North America, Northern Europe/Scandinavia, Japan, and Brazil) and dive into their metal scene and see what it's like. In doing research, I've found it's not quite as interesting as I was hoping, so I'm like 90% likely to just not bother with the idea at this point, but because of that research period, I've collected quite a few solid metal bands out of China that deserve some actual coverage. Skeletal Augury is one of those bands, and god damn is Bless of Destroyed, Raped, Dismembered Flesh a ripping experience.
This album's main strength is also it's greatest flaw, and that's that it's very by-the-book. Skeletal Augury play black/thrash and follow all the rules while doing it. On one hand, this is a surefire way to be at the very least "good", since black/thrash is a hard genre to fuck up as long as you don't try to get too cute with it, so at the absolute worst this could've wound up just being boring. Luckily, despite playing along to all of the genre tropes to the letter, there's enough energy and ferocity to keep it fresh and interesting the entire way through. It takes a bit to really grab me, but from "Lord of Damnation" until the end it is just fucking dominant. This revels in the primitive slop of the old masters like Hellhammer and Sodom, with an equal helping of the razor-sharp edge of slightly newer (but still old) champions like Nifelheim. Special mention has to go to Li Bai's drumming, which is surprisingly tight for how raw and nasty the album is on the whole. Check out "Barbaric Realm", he's on another level compared to the rest of the guys on that one.
But like I said, all of this is a bit of a problem as well, because for most of the runtime this isn't particularly distinct when compared to most bands in the genre today. Bless is a very shallow album with no twists or nuance in the songwriting to help it stand out as anything other than barbaric and vicious. In fairness, that's all it needs to be, and it succeeds at what it sets out to do very well, but it does struggle to keep your attention at times thanks to how samey it is. There are very few standout moments here. "Black Hydra" sports a ridiculously frantic main riff that serves as the highlight of the entire album in my eyes, and "Stench and Twisted Lust" sounds like a lost Slayer track from around the Haunting the Chapel/Reign in Blood era, but apart from those and the few sections pointed out in the previous paragraph, this all just kinda does what you expect it to do and then dissipates in the sunlight. It's a shame because I like this a lot on the surface, but it's not deep enough to really enjoy beyond that.
Despite that, this is a serious barnburner when it's on, and I've found myself going back to this an awful lot since discovering it. I've probably made it sound worse than it actually is but that's simply because I find it's hard to really go in depth with this style. It only really hits one note but that's all it really needs to do, and I'm not about to fault a band for kicking ass at the only thing they need to do.
RATING: 79%
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