Vehemency
Valoton’s debut album stands as a fairly surprising addition to Hammer of Hate’s roster, considering Valoton’s somewhat modern and technical style in which they play black metal with hints of death metal thrown in too. Attacking with ultimate speed, yet not forgetting atmosphere and a good sense of melody, Beastificate turns out to be a good, richly textured piece of black metal, though it has its flaws too.
In the beginning, Beastificate is most notably fast, fast and fast. The sea of blast beats seems endless and the guitars fire their tremolos all the way through, but the music still has its catchiness, especially when the album ventures to the third track ”Jaws of Abaddon” that adds some interesting elements of melodic breakdowns into the relentless war. This variation is further explored in the belligerent rhythms of ”Avatar” and most clearly in the grande finale ”Reborn in Flames” which incorporates some sweet, epic female singing - a definite highlight moment on the album. The crispy, tight production fits the professionally played instruments very well.
The minus points go to Beastificate’s unsurprising nature. A lot of good ideas have been implemented into the eight assaults plus interlude, but only rarely does the album show Valoton’s own identity which is still somewhat unclear to me even after numerous spins. Ultimately, Valoton stays in rather safe grounds of its musical influences and doesn’t dare to go much further. This is just a generalization of the album though, as there are certain moments that I simply love, but at times it’s hard to say what’s the difference between Beastificate and some other modern deathened black metal record. All the nagging now aside, this is definitely a well done debut album with great musicianship, and recommended to those who don’t mind professional and modern aspects in black metal.