What do you get when you combine members of Mayhem, Altaar, Nuclear Assault, and Tyrant? A big fat belly flop into the murky pools of extreme metal. This extreme metal super group’s debut In Bondage to the Serpent is easily one of the most disappointing albums of 2011. It’s meandering passages seem at times to actually be taking you somewhere and then, bam! Dead end! Repeat process for six, seven-minute plus tracks(well the title-track is only six and half). A test of patience is this album in a nutshell.
Despite my best efforts to like this album, the redeeming qualities were just too few and far between. Nearly nonexistent really. I got pretty excited when I first heard news of Nunfuckritual’s plans to release an album. I expected great things from this supergroup of sorts. What really kills In Bondage to the Serpent is the oppressive lack of variation. Each track pretty much follows the same basic pattern. A slow, fuzzed out riff builds up with some uninspired drumming backing it. Ride it for several minutes and throw in some throaty distorted vocals and you get the basic idea of what’s going on here. Sure, this sounds dark and ominous at times, but such lengthy stretches don’t do it justice.
Not even guest appearances from Mayhem’s Attila Csihar and 1349′s Ravn can save this album. They both appear on “Komodo dragon, Mother Queen.” In fact, they don’t do much at all to really make their presence known. The keyboards in “Christokos” make things a little interesting, and when things pick up a bit in “Cursed Virgin, Pregnant Whore” it’s kind of nice as well. It’s short-lived though as the band quickly returns to the plodding pace they’ve already so heavily established. More continuous droning on makes these moments quickly forgettable.
I’m sure many will grade or judge this album on a curve due to the band’s extreme metal lineage, but I can’t get into it no matter how hard I try. It just comes across as boring and pointless. It’s easily forgettable and isn’t even suitable as background noise. At least the cover art is cool, right?
Rating: 5.5/10
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