EP REVIEW: Profanatica – Altar Of The Virgin Whore

Here I review another legendary Hells Headbangers artist, PROFANATICA with their new mini album! Out in November!

1. Conceived With Sin goes right in with blistering riffs and blast beats that have such a strong malice to them. The Blackened Death Metal assault needs no introduction and just immediately grinds in with full force. The crushing slower sections accentuate that faster parts really well. The vocals add a blackened grimace to the song really sounding very eerie, excellent. The unrelenting strength of the song is entirely monolithic with some tight bass lines and crawling lead work, mixed with the drums and hellish vocals in a very raw manner this all creates something totally hate filled. Great opening piece.
2. Altar Of The Virgin Whore starts off stating the title in a really haunting manner before kicking into pummelling drums and ferocious riffs once more, absolutely nothing polished, just pure Extreme Metal attack. The song has a really dismal feeling that is played and captured beautifully. This is something totally dark and evil that almost sounds forbidden and like I shouldn’t be listening to it, which makes me love it even more. Some absolutely killer material.
3. Crucifixion Wounds begins with some epic riffs, they have a really catchy and filthy groove to them with tons of distortion that is being put to good use. The high velocity impact of the intense drums and grisly guitar/bass sections really hits hard in such a gorgeously nasty way. This song, like the others, is just astonishingly punishing and certainly some of the most enjoyable raw stuff I have heard in a while. Fantastic work.
4. Prayer In Eclipse follows nicely from the previous track with its more enticing grooves yet still obliterating extremity. The material is incredibly primal but also very effective and really emotive. There is a really nice 90s fuzzy static to the mix and tones used by the band and some epic, huge sounding drums. The more doomy crawl of this song is absolutely epic with some gruesome vocals this piece would be a perfect soundtrack to some really awesome horror movie. The track overall has a nice funeral march pace to it that is really well woven in with the incredibly full on faster sections. Some insanely in your face music for sure.
5. Thorn King once more rapidly ensues from the previous track with thunderous drums and gravelly guitars that just lay waste to the listener, perfecting the foundation for some of the most hellish and demonic vocals I have heard in quite some time. Brilliant!
6. Fuck The Messiah is really catchy from the off with some menacing grooves and malignant drums that all hit so hard and pause nicely before dropping into utter chaos. There is a genuine and raw honesty to this music that is really humbling, letter the simplicity and primitive song writing flow elegantly rather than trying to use pretentious or obnoxious merits to overcomplicate everything. The lead work really pushes through the mix excellently on this piece, really nice work. Some damn good Blackened Death Metal for people who prefer things on the raw side, like me.
7. He Has Risen fires in with some nice drum work and slower paced riffs that have an awesome foreboding touch to them, really feeling like something horrific awaits. The band while keeping things simple have an excellent attitude regarding atmosphere and song writing with great structural approach too. This is honestly so demonic sounding, I really feel this is some of the darkest Extreme Metal going at the minute. The haunting chimes from the drummer and dismally distorted guitar and bass grind along with such malice that feels like it is waiting to catch you off guard with the final piece that will follow. Great little interval for certain.
8. Sacred Code Broken is the bands last chance to obliterate the listener. It does not waste time going into fast paced brutality that just decimates you as you observe the grinding mania of the music. There is excellent vocal work that is soaked in reverb allowing the vocals to work more as an instrument which sounds killer. The furious approach of this final song does not feel like things are coming to a close, more just the band pay no regard to their shorter running length and wish to inflict one more piece of absolutely incredible music on us.

This EP features nothing but pure, unaltered Extreme Metal with blackened atmospherics and crushing brutality that comes in waves, soaking you in aggressive Metal noise. Absolutely brilliant and certainly pushing extremity to new grounds while keeping the old school vibe. -8/10