NEGATIVE PLANE — The Pact... (review)

NEGATIVE PLANE — The Pact... album cover

Album · 2022 · Black Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-05-24
siLLy puPPy

NEGATIVE PLANE dates back as far as 2001 when it was founded in Gainesville, Florida and found its unique niche with a mixture of classic heavy metal sounds forged in black metal with its debut “Et In Saecula Saeculorum.” The band caught the world’s attention with its 2006 debut but took another five long years for its followup “Stained Glass Revolutions” to finally see the light of the day. Without even an EP in sight for years this band has been presumed M.I.A. but lo and behold after a whopping eleven year absence NEGATIVE PLANE which now calls New York City its home base has arisen from its slumber and at long last finds its third album THE PACT out in 2022.

The works of the German literature king Goethe is nothing new in the subject matter of classical music or even metal for that matter and NEGATIVE PLANE has adopted the subject matter of Dr Faust and beyond, NEGATIVE PLANE offers an hour’s length of seven tracks that offer that classic 80s speed metal meets black metal sound of Venom and brings it into the modern era. Despite a lengthy absence between albums, the lineup of Nameless Void, Bestial Devotion, D.G. and Thammuz remains intact which allows the band to focus on the chemistry of making their strange mix of early Celtic Frost mixed with the Japanese band Sabbat along with the pummeling speed metal ferocity bands like Helstar.

Paced like a true dramatic theatrical release, the first three tracks which all exceed the eight minute mark showcase the band’s most intense playing style with chugging and oft angular riffing accompanied by the ferocity of speed bass and technical drum rolls. Bestial Devotion offers a vocal style that exists somewhere between the world of 80s speed metal and modern black metal sounding more like Lemmy of Motorhead than either of those respective styles actually. The middle intermission “The Wailing of the Immured” provides a classical orchestration of less than two minutes which offers a nice breather between the intensity of the two sides of the album that bookmark it. The Satanic and evil tales of woe pick up the pace with “Even The Devil Goes Into The Church” with the same aforementioned style of blackened speed metal.a

The grand finale comes with the 16 1/2 minute track “And So It Came To Pass” which finds NEGATIVE PLANE weaving a tapestry of movements into its speed / black metal vision along with moments of clean guitar as well as a heavier reliance on atmospheric backdrops. Given the length of the the tracks on the album, THE PACT in many ways comes off as the modern representation of Venom’s “At War With Satan” and to be honest if someone were to tell me that this was a modern Venom album, a band i don’t keep up with, i might even believe them! In the end this one is what i would call retro metal that evokes some of the classic 80s sounds over four decades ago. The Venom connection is undeniable however since i’ve been been the biggest Venom fan, i have to say that NEGATIVE PLANE in many ways corrects some of the mistakes of Venom’s classic albums.

Overall this isn’t a bad album at all but it seems like it overly relies on the same speed metal riffs decorated in black metal clothing. The diversity factory for such a concept album is painstakingly small and therefore the album does wear thin in its delivery. The closing track is the exception with some nice additional touches that contrast it with the rest of the album but overall the band relies on the same formula which may be fine for some but doesn’t quite take me where i want to go. Still though this is a decent slice of speed meets black metal, two sounds that don’t really commingle much these days and for anyone hoping for a continuation of the classic NEGATIVE PLANE sound then even though it’s eleven years down the road, this is a worthy follow up indeed.