Vehemency
Northern Heritage spawns almost exclusively high quality albums from great bands, but Diaboli is a band I have never thoroughly understood. There’s nothing wrong with very basic and traditional black metal riffing but the same time I can’t see how Diaboli differs from a million other acts in this same vein.
Invocation is no different. Ten tracks of crushing black metal with in-your-face mentality. There’s no room for melancholic forest wanderings, just short pieces of hateful metal, perhaps in the vein of Bathory, Destruction and Hellhammer. ”Dawn of End” does introduce a clean guitar sound but that doesn’t last for long. Otherwise there’s not much to say about individual tracks - unless we want to mention ”A World to Burn” that includes that trademark Blasphemy drum beat (think of ”Ritual” for example, you know), and the album ending title-track that is actually very good, yet making me wish that the rest of the album was as massive as it.
Weariness is the main complaint I have to say about Invocation, but that is not all. While the compositions are rather dull, the overtriggered bass drum makes things even worse. Luckily the bass guitar is really audible, and overall, Invocation sounds deeper and heavier than Diaboli albums usually do. But as a 41-minute piece Invocation is too long, and although there are moments when I enjoy these basic riffs, the album doesn’t move me much overall.