Finland is, in my very humble opinion, better than every other country at making death metal. Whether it’s the twisted, alien riffs of Demilich and Adramelech or the dirty, dark doominess of Rippikoulu and Convulse, the Finns like their death metal ugly and they succeed at making it so. And death metal is at its best when it is ugly.
When I was introduced to Lantern’s 2011 EP Subterranean Effulgence, I was told, despite their Finnish origin, to expect neither twisted, alien riffs nor dirty, dark doominess. Rather, it was a blackened, vicious, ritualistic mass of Satanic evil – it did happen to be dirty and dark, but not doomy. However, in typical Finnish fashion, it was ugly, making it death metal done right in my book. (It is arguable whether Lantern are more death metal or black metal, but we’ll leave that issue aside).
Below is the first full-length from the filthy Finnish occult black/death outfit, and it is a monster. Full of horrifying riffs and shrieking guitar leads, Below is a crawling black mass of impure, soul-sucking malevolence. It is cold, grotesque, and depraved, and I would have it no other way. If you want an idea of what that sounds like, just look at the cover art.
Lantern is the two-man assault of vocalist Necrophilos and guitarist/bassist/drummer Cruciatus. Cruciatus is the mastermind behind the project and it is his performances on the album that make Below such a fantastic example of black/death metal. That is certainly not a slight against Necrophilos; his throaty, harsh, almost hollow growl works perfectly with Lantern’s atmosphere. But death metal is, has, and always will be about riffs, and Below has plenty of those.
The lead guitar is stellar as well. The howling, banshee-like melodies in ‘Revenant’ and ‘Manifesting Shambolic Aura’ are truly terrifying, which is rare to hear even from some of the most legendary of extreme metal bands. It adds much to the evil, ritualistic atmosphere of the album.
And really, that atmosphere is what makes the album stand out. Below may be riffy, but it captures the black metal sense of cold, terrible evil perfectly – not the generic “frozen northern tundra” cold, but a cavernous, massive, almost Lovecraftian unsettling cold. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the monolithic album closer ‘From the Ruins,’ but the entire albums feels this way and it is absolutely glorious. Most of my favorite death metal albums have atmosphere – the extraterrestrial feel of Nespithe, the gritty sludginess of World Without God, the massive, dissonant insanity of Close to a World Below, etc. – and Below does itself a lot of favors by not forgetting that aspect of extreme metal.
Lantern capture what is best about the Finnish death metal scene and morph it, twist it, and desecrate it into their own form. Death metal should be evil and uncompromising, and Below is unapologetically both.
