Hallelujah! is perhaps not the first word you’d associate with a black metal album, but rest assured, Montreal’s Gevurah are steeped in Kabbalistic lore and reek of fire and brimstone.
They haven’t stated which lord is to be praised, but the name Gevurah itself is the fifth Sephirah of the Tree Of Life and is the essence of judgement, or the great fire of God. Their second outing comprises of seven slices of sulphuric black metal rooted in classic orthodox sounds, à la Aosoth and Ofermod.
Cosmic Putrefaction’s fearsome blasts of raw fury segue into doom-laden, Bathory-esque riffs. The title track is a 20-minute epic that closes proceedings and mixes the vast abyssal nihilism of Mgła, the pagan doom of early Anathema and the stirring glory of high church hymns. Rather than the cartoon demons of early black metal, Gevurah’s take is a decidedly more spiritual devilry. Kabbalah and arcane mysticism inform them at every turn and the Canadian occultists have created a dark, brooding slice of evil.
