There’s no doubt about it – Glorior Belli’s last album Sundown: The Flock That Welcomes was a belter. It was pitched as a return to the band’s roots, and if you consider Glorior Belli’s bayou-soaked roots to be sludgy, face-melting black metal with only a hint of blues then that is indeed what it was. Either way, it certainly didn’t get the recognition that it deserved as one of the band’s best releases to date and still one of my personal favourites of 2016 full-stop. But band mastermind Billy Bayou has never been afraid to switch tack – whether that’s in reaction to an albums reception or just his own whim it’s hard to say – and so here we are with the Apostates. An album I’ve personally been looking forward to from a band I like the more I get to know them despite the unfathomable reaction they seem to get from some quarters.
In fact, despite the band’s assertion that the last album was a return to the source, I have to say there are parts of The Apostates sounds more Glorior Belli than ever and very much a celebration of the sludgy (or swampy would probably be a better word) black metal, this time round with plenty more of that bluesy edge – which all works so well it difficult to understand why it’s not something that doesn’t have its own subgenre (ok – tell me that it does… Louisiana black metal anyone?).
I’ll admit that the band has had its ups and downs and some releases work better than others with one or two suffering from a lack of focus. And there’s no doubt, for me anyway, that the more rocky influences that have crept into parts of this album is probably something I’ll just have to keep ploughing though. But let’s focus on the highlights: Deserters of Eden and Bedlam Bedamned are fine examples of the band at their breakneck intensity, black metal best. Meanwhile, there are some tracks that use the blue slide guitar effects to the full and to gratifying effect – like the title track.
But where I get stuck is the full-blown stoner rock that make an unwelcome entry both early on (Hangin’ Crepe – a track which I struggle with on may levels with its grating repetition and which lands midway through the album acting like a watershed moment) but especially through to the end of the album (the chorus to Runaway Charlie is a particular offender). Now, I’m no purist when it comes to black metal, or any other genre – far from it. But I do feel like I get so much stoner rock haemorrhaging into my listening time without me even trying to seek it out that the last place I really want to find it is in the dark and humid corners of black metal. I’m sure I’ll get over it and maybe by the end of the year I’ll barely notice, but right now with my mind focused on what I’m loving and not loving about The Apostates, that falls squarely into the latter list. There are also some looser tracks on The Apostate which, again, maybe I just need to let sink in a bit more but right now are not ringing those heavenly metal bells.
All that said, it’s worth pointing out that the opening track of the album Sui Generis translates as something that is ‘in a class of its own’: unique. It’s a provocative opening message but there’s little doubt that it applies to Glorior Belli. This is not a bad album and it’s a brave album that just hasn’t hit the right buttons with me personally. Then again, I’ve no doubt that I’m going to warm to this in parts (there’s definitely in that final crooning track Rebel Reveries, even though it all sounds a bit Avenged Sevenfold at the moment) and lurking somewhere in Billy Bayou is without doubt another album that crystallises the thoughts and ideas that swirl around inside his head into another corker down the road. Frankly, it’s a wait I’m prepared to me and this will do in the meantime.
(7/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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