Unpure - Prophecies Ablaze LP

Sweden's UNPURE are the very definition of a CULT band. Formed in that fateful year of 1991, the band spread their black-leather wings across three demos before the momentous release of their self-titled debut album in 1995. A quiet classic that built in stature over the years to come, UNPURE followed up the elevated primitivism of Unpure with three more albums over the next decade - a patience pace, yes, and a further refinement of their jet-black metal into something thrashier or at least more speed metalled but something truly UNPURE. No "party blackthrash" here: always, the iron fist of vocalist/bassist Kolgrim guided their muse into occult waters, tastefully and trend-free. However, those waters largely stayed dormant aside from infrequent gigs, following the release of 2004's World Collapse, with only a couple new songs arriving on a retrospective compilation...but the legend of UNPURE continue to grow with each successive generation.

Now, UNPURE are prepared to scale the throne that's rightfully theirs with their long-awaited comeback album, Prophecies Ablaze. Although both men have been in the lineup since 2011, UNPURE's fifth album marks the recorded arrival of two new guitarists, Watain's Pelle Forsberg and Degial's Hampus Eriksson, as well as erstwhile Degial drummer Emil Svensson (who joined the band in 2019), and their fire is immediately felt: Prophecies Ablaze is indeed aptly titled, for the intensity is sharp and seething and very much burning. A black/death conflagration as it were, UNPURE's attack is upratcheted to an enviable degree, very much sounding like the same band that stoked legions for the past three decades but one that more so sounds impossibly incensed and almost youthful. Credit that to a seamless melding of songwriting and execution, where the former races with both grandeur and grime while the latter exudes lawless abandon and stoic clarity alike, altogether displaying a muscular brand of black METAL that's as timeless as ever. And mention must be made of the production across Prophecies Ablaze: "razor-sharp" might be a meaningless cliche by now, but this recording's razors are deadly precise and absolutely bloody!

No other words needed: UNPURE have returned, and Prophecies Ablaze is every inch the record they needed to return with. With eyes to the sky and hearts inflamed, prepare for the benediction of classic Swedish darkness!