UMUR "Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK black metal act The Axis of Perdition. The album was released through Code666 in April 2011. The album has been eagerly anticipated by followers of the band but many of those followers have probably also been a bit hesitant to expect too much as "Urfe (2008)" didn´t exactly meet the expectations of most of the band´s fans. Especially the fans who expected "Urfe (2008)" to be anything like the "Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God) (2004)" EP or "Deleted Scenes From the Transition Hospital (2005)", which are arguably the band´s most celebrated works. "Urfe (2008)" is a twisted, ambient, dark, and mostly spoken word album with only few sections that can be called metal.

"Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)" brings the band back on the industrial black metal path they are mostly known for. Most of the tracks on the first half of the album are delivered in a fiercely fast-paced fashion. The dissonant bleak riffing is as always a big part of the band´s sound. The second half of the album has more slower and mid-paced parts. A track like "Ordained" even has traces of melody. The vocals are raspy, raw and delivered in a demented almost schizophrenic fashion.

The Axis of Perdition create a busy, "evil" and cacophonous atmosphere, that is not easily penetrable. At times the word "noise" comes to mind. This is in large part due to the sound production which is completely without dynamics. The music isn´t exactly colourful to begin with but add to that the flat and lifeless sound production and the listening experience becomes almost unbearably monotone. The fact that the drums sound programmed and artificial to the point of sounding annoying doesn´t help one bit either.

It´s interesting to note that The Axis of Perdition actually haven´t changed their sound much, but it´s the way the tracks are presented that rubs me wrong. It´s taken me months to get through the album in one sitting simply because my attention wanders after a short while. The hooks are few and far between. We´ve come to expect a chaotic sound from the band, and that´s what the fans want from them, but "Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)" is just too much monotone chaos to be enjoyed for 60:26 minutes. The band occasionally still excel in utter darkness and industrial black metal despair to great effect, but the monotony unfortunately soon sets in.

"Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)" isn´t exactly the return to form I had hoped for. It´s like the band, in their search for ultimate darkness, have completely sacrificed memorability. Even the darkest most cacophonous release needs catchy moments to not become monotone and this album doesn´t have enough. A 2 star (40%) rating is warranted.

J-Man Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh), the fourth full-length effort from UK experimental black metal act The Axis of Perdition, is not an easy album to dive into. The long and dissonant compositions, combined with torturous vocals and a noisy, lo-fi production can make for a difficult first few listens - not to mention the hour-long running time that is far too long for its own good. Despite the album's intentional inaccessibility, Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) doesn't get much better with repeated spins. As a matter of fact, I felt that my enjoyment decreased even further with each new listen. Fans of The Axis of Perdition may want to check this out, but you can certainly find better black metal releases this year than this.

The music here is experimental black metal with industrial and ambient influences. The Axis of Perdition have a reputation for creating extremely frightening and dark music, and even if Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) isn't the scariest thing they've ever done, this still isn't an album for those who enjoy the more melodic and commercial forms of black metal. Despite the band's interesting approach to black metal, Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) isn't a very impressive effort in the end. The weak production, combined with the sterile instrumentation and uneven arrangements, makes for an album with tons of potential, yet not enough of it is lived up to the fullest. "Ordained" is the only excellent track here, with its epic and melodic black metal feel making it the album's unquestionable highlight. I also enjoy more ambient-oriented songs like "Awakenings" - the horror-filled ending to this track is especially noteworthy. Other than that, Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) is a fairly unremarkable effort. Not much on this album hasn't done better before, and the whole thing feels a bit dull and uninspired. It's a shame, because there really are some excellent moments on this album - if the entire thing were as great as "Ordained", my opinion of the album would be vastly improved. Instead, Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) lacks enough truly horrifying moments or memorable sections to make it stand out from most modern black metal albums.

I wasn't very impressed by Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh), and I think that there are certainly better experimental black metal releases out there than this one. Though the album has potential, the sterile atmosphere and messy production ruin most of its assets. Fans of The Axis of Perdition will want to give this a shot, but beware that there's only one excellent song on the whole album - and that cannot be ignored. Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) is far too long for its own good, and lacks enough quality material to justify anywhere near an hour-long duration. 2 stars seems fair here.

Vehemency Going back to the first half of the 2000s, the abominant The Axis of Perdition was already churning out impressive industrialized black metal horror, not unlike Atrium Carceri’s ambience and Blut Aus Nord’s twisted metal, and I remember enjoying Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God) and Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital to a great extent. Keeping this in mind, the group’s newest offering Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) is unfortunately not quite as captivating release, lacking in some crucial aspects such as truly haunting compositions and a fitting sound.

After the brief introduction, ”Unveiled” kicks in with the programmed drums that, even though appearing on a heavily industrial album, seem somewhat amateurish, the sterile hammering not working for the atmosphere’s good at all. However, the overall atmosphere is fittingly hysterical, a thousand voices echoing all around the soundscape, guitars firing rapid and seemingly incoherent discordance, albeit the chord progressions are almost never remarkable. Vocals are the weakest link of the line-up: while for the most part they are decent raspy screams - though sometimes the forced semi-clean vocals (”Unveiled”, ”The Flesh Spiral”) sound like they’d better belong to an insipid nu-metal group from yesteryears, lacking strength and any seriousness that an album of this kind would need - there’s really nothing mysterious about the vocal output.

The humming ambient interlude ”Dark Red Other” is the first proper breathing moment after an exhausting four-song combo of constant chaos. After that, the same feast on dissonant melodies continue until ”Ordained” begins, a 180 degree turn from the material before it, starting with epic synths and then bursting into impressive melancholic black metal with twirling melodies and only slight elements of the convulsing metal that Tenements otherwise provides. This song is a definite highlight of the album, a heard-rending piece combining despair and sickness, sung in clean vocals, and it makes me wish the 60-minute whole had more of this style.

I hate to say it, but all in all Tenements (of the Anointed Flesh) leaves a slightly negative taste, mostly because the music doesn’t quite deliver the frightening elements of their early material; instead, it all sounds a little common, already heard on various other black metal albums. Having only one truly great song, I must settle to an okay rating. Without that one particular track, take the half star off.

adg211288 Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) is the fourth full-length album from Industrial Black Metal act The Axis of Perdition, released in 2011. The sound of the album is primarily black metal but the band adds an industrial edge in several places, with an additional ambient influence thrown in for good measure.

Compositionally there isn’t really anything to complain about with an album of this style, although it could hardly be considered groundbreaking, but as a whole package the band’s writing is let down a lot by some very poor production values which kill the impact of the record for me. Having tried to give the album time with several plays I’ve toyed with the idea that the minimalist production approach may be intentional – this is black metal after all, and raw production is often a staple of the sound. Unfortunately in the case of Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) the raw sound doesn’t do the band any favours and weakens the sound of the songs, rather than making any sort of an atmosphere, because the end result is often just a load of noise with little musical integrity. There’s interesting ideas to be had in the album, but the production doesn’t do them the justice that they deserve which leaves them worth virtually nothing in the grander sense of things.

I can’t say that the vocals are exactly the strongest of elements of the band’s sound on Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) either. I suppose that if you’re into this sort of style then you’re more likely to find an appreciation for them, but I was personally getting annoyed with the poor quality of them by the time of the third track, Unbound. They have their moments when they suit the best well, and take on a stronger tone than in other times, but overall the vocal work on the album is very poor quality which further lets it down as a whole package.

The album’s fourth track, Sigils and Portents, offers some aspects of redemption with a generally stronger vocal delivery which includes some cleans and some more prominent melodic guitar work, as well as sticking to some of the general weirdness heard in the previous tracks, and personally I believe it’s the closest you’ll be able to get to an album highlight, since the next track, The Flesh Spiral, returns to the sort of quality heard in the previous tracks.

There isn’t really much else that can really be said about the album, because it ranges from poor at worst and mediocre at best. The strongest aspect here is that there any generally some really good ideas present in the album’s instrumentation and had they not been spoilt by what could possibly be the worst production job for an album of this kind ever then the band would have a much better effort on their hands here.

If raw sounding black metal of any description is your thing then Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh) is likely an album that you’ll be able to take some enjoyment out of, however I’m heard much stronger efforts from bands with a raw style (or even rawer than that heard on this album) that manage to create something that works really well for them, whereas with Tenements all the required potential is there, just delivered completely wrong. It’s a nice effort for which despite its faults the band deserves a score around the middle of the scale, but better luck next time guys.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)