Italian black metal occultists Black Flame have been operating from the shadows for 10 years, since 1998, with the same line-up. A milestone to most bands, especially for the ones in extreme metal. To celebrate, Black Flame released a new album, entitled Imperivm. The album contains 8 tracks of violent black metal. I know you’re interested in reading more, so let’s do it.

Slow down there, fella. The first track isn’t anything to get excited over. ‘Requiem’ is basically an annoying high beep with some instruments on the background. Luckily CD-players have a skip forward-button. ‘Imperivm’ gives a good impression on what Black Flame is all about. The violent blasts and the brutish, death screams combined with heavily distorted guitars makes for an aggressive wall of sound. Most of the song structures aren’t that complicated. Black Flame’s strength lies in its simplicity. ‘Black Sun Theory’ contains speedy black metal riffing in the vein of many classic bands, but suddenly switches to a slow, instrumental droning near the end. Speedy, simple, but effective nonetheless. The band knows how to draw attention. The production is great and the death screams make the album more appealing to metal fans who’ve heard a lot of the traditional package in black metal.

Basically, the tracks featured on Imperivm contain enough brutality and speed to remain diverse. But that’s about it, too. The song structures aren’t exactly to be called innovative. Although ‘The Secret Of Lapis Manalis’ has a promising intro, the song quickly reverts back to the traditional formula of extreme metal: blast away and blend in with the masses. Too bad, this record could have been so much more with a less traditional approach.