Salvo Honoris Morte

Recently the second full length of Deathmoor from Stavropol of Russia that it is called “Salvo Honoris Morte” came to my possession. The four member band with this album offers to us a journey with the six tracks that are contained, into darkness, hate and self-destruction. So, here we have forty minutes of a perfect mixture of Scandinavian, traditional Black Metal sound, with the “ugly” DSBM sound, many Industrial elements as also and some noise references.

What Deathmoor achieves both in this album is that they combine so many elements so perfectly that none seams foreign. The riffs are mostly repulsive DSBM melodies in medium and slow speed rhythm while in many parts, more often in the slow ones, also the noise elements appear and make the atmosphere even heavier and unbearable. In the faster parts of the album we come across the atmospheric, Scandinavian riffs that remind Emperor and give another, more atmospheric – majestic character to the tracks. Finally, in various parts we come across to some industrial passages which bring to the listener’s mind Dødheimsgard. Although that the duration of the tracks is quite long (each track is over five minutes long), their structure is so correct, with interesting changes to the riffs, to the feelings and to the atmosphere that it doesn’t let the listener to get bored.

The guitars are quite distorted and dirty, a sound that absolutely fits to the style of the compositions, while their performance has accuracy, technic and feeling. The lines of the bass are not audible almost at all but without that to be annoying. The drums have stability and certainty and their lines keep the rhythm well without being anything special. The keyboards appear in a few parts and they stay mainly in the background. They are an integral part of the compositions and they make the feelings more intense and the atmosphere thicker. The vocals are harsh, distorted Black Metal screams which reminded me a lot of Xasthur, that in various parts they become clean, torturing vocals and in other operatic ones. The overall sound of the album is quite bass and dirty, but without that to be negative and the mixture is balanced. The lyrics are written in Russian and I don’t know what they refer to.

Summing up, the second full length of Deathmoor has very interesting tracks, has its own identity and can offer to the listener a very intense experience. This album is quite personal and it demands the attention of the listener. If you listen to it carefully, it will surely lure you into its dark world. Good album, listen to it.