ALBUM REVIEW: Blasphemy – Blood Upon The Soundspace

Once more, I have received an awesome piece of music to hear, this time the rarely heard Blasphemy rehearsal recording from 1989 “Blood Upon The Soundspace”, due for an official release on Nuclear War Now!

1. Darkness Prevails kicks things off with some harsh feedback, a demonic howl and morbid moods from the off. The droning guitars sound like they are straight from hell with the whammy noise attack. The  violent attack on the instruments comes in an incredibly raw package, as we would expect from Blasphemy, especially a rehearsal. Now this probably will not appeal to your average Black Metal listener, but those who enjoy the “War Metal” movement, low fi as it gets, should be all over this. An opening track filled with aggression, growls, static fuzz and some just about audible instrumental use. Pretty cool to hear this perspective that was so rare from the band. The barbaric blasting, crashing and chainsaw guitars goes on for a few minutes, and sounds pretty damn cool despite the gnarly production. Finally the guitar solo is effectively some messy lead noise, but works really well.
2. Hording Of Evil Vengeance is slower, slightly clearer and still equally abysmally evil. The fuzzy tones that are sheerly primal in every essence sound really cool over the snare blasting drums and snarling howls of the vocalist. Absolutely awesome and much easier to listen to, not saying it is better, just easier. The shredded guitar solo is insane, and finally the sheer speed of this track is pretty impressive. Great work from the War Metal legends.
3. Desecration follows on in the noisy assault of the senses, now this is some damn honest and raw Black Metal, no studio production or flamboyant touches. This is pure aggression captured at a tightly played rehearsal, the precision of the more audible parts shows the tracks are actually very played. This song resembles “Deathcrush” by Mayhem to me somewhat, in pattern anyway. I really love how the vocals sound with so much raspy possessed snarls used, the guitar static is cool but hard to hear, the drums are just psychotically fast.
4. Goddess Of Perversity has a more upbeat rhythm, some slight timing hitches but an absolutely great example of early Black Metal demos contain so much untampered with raw aggression, despite not having the prettiest packaging and some really skilled musicians. The dark and bleak atmosphere is absolutely on point here too. This music feels genuinely dangerous, yet so enticing somehow. The doomy drone of guitar static is absolutely captivating over precise drumming and topped with the voices of hell itself. Once more absolutely vitriolic guitar shredding takes place, giving furthering to the maddening ‘noise-scape’. Amazing work.
5. War Command closes the 5 track, short lived but maniacal rehearsal. The bass sound is so crackly, I love that. The noise lasts less that 1 minute, reaching inhuman speeds and sounds alike. This closes by not leading out, but blasting your ears once more. Absolute fury, at its best.

I am reviewing this for what it is, a rehearsal tape, incredibly raw but fascinating as a perspective from inside Blasphemy. A pretty gnarly set of noisy Black Metal madness, and a killer one at that when you get past the production. -7.5/10