Artist: Seregost x Haudh
Title: The Devastation Of Baal
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Sokol Keep
Well I was originally going to review this album earlier but weirdly decided not to as I thought everyone currently following my blog would have either heard it or bought it. I then realised that isn’t the point. Casual viewers might be intrigued, blind luck might attract a perusal or too and, most importantly, this album is pretty bloody spectacular and that’s why I’m here; to enthuse and celebrate.
So up front I am NOT a font of Warhammer 40K knowledge. I’ve ‘only’ read about a dozen novels of the Horus Heresy and a few other things mostly following Dan Abnett whose Durham Red far future reboot was, basically, not a universe away. Oh and I’ve read a couple of source books because who doesn’t just love this lore. And own the Ultramarines movie, and watched the fantastic Secret Level segment and…
You get the picture. Pretty casual compared to actual fans. But the basic lore, the unrelenting grim universe, the outrageous genocidal xenophobia of the Legions and their enemies… yeah, it got its hooks in me enough. War Eternal indeed. And yes I looked up the details of this battle….
Six passages by Seregost, six by Haudh. Can they become a whole?
Seregost first. Ominous, epic music, the sounds of automatic weapons, explosions, a voice over setting the scene, a speech to rouse the marines. Then ‘Arx Angelicum’. An absolutely monumental, monolith rise of pumping music, military drumbeats. Cinematic strings opening up onto the fog of war. Both rousing and utterly bleak, this is perfect Warhammer. There is nothing here except death. And glory. Make every step, every bolt count as if it was your last because, some time it will be. ‘March Forth, Sons Of Sanguinous’ begins in almost silence, then the raapid pulse of beats with that synthwave sound deep in its core. It cranks up into the slow, unstoppable military beat. The image of huge figures in massive power armour emerging from the smoke is inevitable. Bullets and bolts fly and hiss. Too late to retreat, they are coming.
‘We Shall Not Die Meekly’ to rouse the battle torn… fantastic vocals here, fully inhabiting the role. ‘Angels Excelsis’ is a bloody storm, metal to the forefront in a galloping, heroic and violent charge. This is blood pumping, flint eyed determination, a time for heroes of the darkest and bloodiest kind, the choir urging on these angels. A time for not a step back. Damn…. just glory and fire and legend.
Seregost’s section closes with ‘The Chapter Is Finished But It Is Not Yet Dead’. This is the stink of death in gloomy synth washes and then the striking of drums amongst the ashes. Everything seems still, the music suggest a heavy layer of the fog of war and yet the melody tells you something is coming. Something is still there.
‘The Leviathan, Swarm, Extinction’ is Haudh’s first entry. A cocked weapon, the scene setting, the xenos arrive. All is lost. And yet…
‘Invasion, the Great Devourer’ a clatter of machine and feet and beasts. Strings scything through. Rhythmic chants. Inevitability of ‘The Infinite Swarm’. The music has a hallowed sound, a warning of the grand and ancient advancing. A swirl around the beat. ‘The Immaterium, Greater Daemon, Chaos’ with the narrator offering no comfort as the world rips apart and mere chaos is loosed and so we see ‘The Great Rift, Daemon Horde’ where chains clank and the ponderous chants and swirls of strange melodies summon the rumble of thunder.
We close with ‘The Bloodthirster Ka’Bandha’. There is a distant, eerieness about this, a curious quiet to the single minded glare destruction. It somehow sucks all hope from the place, that this is the end, the final slaughter. Sanguinius our only hope.
And the only hope is more blood and the slaughter of all not human.
Ah this is a terrific split no doubt. Different sides to the same place, different tones but a relentless, grim atmosphere. Avatars of utter destruction, eternal hate and relentless slaughter. Blood, so much blood….
Gizmo
Seregost x Haudh – The Devastation of Baal | Seregost x Haudh | SOKOL KEEP
Walking The Liminal Space 