Ancestral Fog – Rid The Human Plague (2005)

Originally wrote & published on November 7th, 2005

A few of the guys from Merrimack, Christicide, Antaeus, and Bliss of Flesh got together back in 1999 and spawned the unholy force known as Ancestral Fog. This French band gives us their take on the brutal black metal genre and the results are simply fantastic. At first listen it seemed like these guys were influenced by the usual bands, but after further inspection it seems they're drawing influences from bands like Kult of Azazel or perhaps Antaeus, but it's hard to tell for sure. While a lot of brutal black metal bands tend to bore me these days, the important part about Ancestral Fog is that the music is melodic and each instrument is played with precision and absolute dexterity. For the most part the music is almost always super fast and brutal but there are a few interesting breakdowns and cool drum parts to this demo also. Vocalist Terrorizt is one fine black metal singer, unleashing hellish hate filled screams that few can come close to sounding as good as.

Production wise the demo is also decent, but the overall sound quality probably could have been better. All things considered I’m very impressed with this demo and would very much like to hear a full length album soon!