Barathrum

***25 years after its initial release comes the first vinyl edition of this classic recording of Finnish black metal. Formed by DEMONOS SOVA in 1990, BARATHRUM has long established itself as a pillar of the second wave of black metal and a progenitor of the Finnish sound, along with their peers Beherit and Impaled Nazarene. Between 1991 and 1995, Barathrum released a succession of demos, all of which were good, but clearly showed a band still in the process of self-discovery. It was with the 1995 debut full-length, Hailstorm—released on the legendary Nazgul’s Eyrie label—that Barathrum carved out a truly unique space. On Hailstorm, Sova dispensed with the usual guitar-driven composition, and instead used a dual bass performance to channel a gloomier subterranean sound. The immense weight and inertia of the distorted basslines, at once percussive and melodic, carry the mid-paced riffs, elongated and stretched to their limits.