RIDE FOR REVENGE - "WISDOM OF THE FEW" LP

For over a decade now, RIDE FOR REVENGE have maintained one of the most unique sounds in the black/death underground - and prolifically, at that - with their debut album, 2007's The King of Snakes, being the watershed moment where this Finnish entity boldly unfurled its uneasy 'n' unclean primitivism-unto-ritualism onto unsuspecting ears. Since then, the duo became a trio, and their original vision - murky, miasmic, even tribal black metal debased down to its most primitive state, originally using only drums and mangled strings run through a bass amp - has ever so slightly expanded to include noisier textures and even early grindcore.

Released in 2009 on CD format and an extremely limited vinyl version a year later, RIDE FOR REVENGE's Wisdom of the Few saw the band expand upon the primitive promise of their classic The King of Snakes debut. Following much the same format - submerged, half-speed bestiality pulsed and pounded into oblivion - RIDE FOR REVENGE here go for an arguably uglier aesthetic, dingy and diseased, with a subtler menace and an even-more-maniacal approach to its soundfield. It's certainly a more challenging listen, but it's one that cannot be replicated by anyone else, particularly the epic 12-minute monolith of "Morning Won't Bring a Twinkling Star." And like many/most of their records, the song titles tell the entire story: "Dungeons of the Original Sin," "No Savior No Return," "Passages for Greater Self," the telltale "Dedicated to Destruction," and fittingly ending on "Justification / The Circle Remains Closed."