Before writing for the fellas here at Everything At Noise, I wrote for a site that specialized in underground metal. I’d get sent a random bunch of promos every other week and had to put my ears to the critical test. It was a tough gig because- to be brutally honest – most of it wasn’t good, and I never wanted to throw a bunch of kids under the proverbial bus just to have their dreams squashed by some dumbass on the Internet. So I searched for the good, even if it was just wrapped up in the desire of four dudes doing what they like in a storage room in Europe or a single-minded outcast entrenched in his grandmother’s basement making lo-fi black metal. But it was also a lesson in critical listening- when you force yourself to find the good in something, you have a tendency sometimes to dig much deeper than you normally would. In other words, an album I would have tossed out the window after five minutes I now needed to live with for a week or two and – after multiple listens – I’d find some small morsel to rave about. Even if it was just a tiny crumb that was edible.
Norwegian metal stalwarts Purified in Blood, however, create a smorgasbord of mouth-watering metal (even if it’s free of meat, as the band were notorious straight-edge vegans back in the naughts when they first started) on their first release in over a decade, Primal Pulse Thunder. Like horror movies, metal has always existed within the walls of pretty narrow parameters, and the real creative minds found ways of stretching those boundaries to their breaking points. In other words, how far can you drift from minor scales, flattened fifths, and blast beats and still be considered part of the “trve kvlt”? From Ulver disposing itself of almost all the defining elements of metal to the mixing of black metal and African-American spirituals of Zeal & Ardor, there have been dozens of bands that have successfully reinvented the genre through their own visions, and have kept the genre one of the most propulsive in all of popular music. All that being said, Purified in Blood are not here to push boundaries. The band knows exactly where it exists: if a slasher film works because of an endless thirst for severed limbs, decapitated bodies and endless founts of crimson red blood, then why change the blueprint?
Purified in Blood first burst upon the Scandinavian music scene back in the early ’00s, one of hundreds of bands to put their own spin on the death metal adjacent sounds coming out of Norway at the time. The band first dabbled in a nu-metal-inspired thrash attack, with more emphasis on the latter, and while they gained a lot of respect from the scene – whatever that may be – they wallowed in relative obscurity for some time. Being a self-avowed straight edge vegan metal band may have worked for them as well as against them, but by 2007, the commitment to the beliefs proved to be a bit exhausting, and the band quietly disappeared for a short time.
But empathy is something hard-wired into the human soul, and despite all the rage and anger implicit in the music of Purified in Blood, there is still a fierce commitment to social justice at the core of their music. “Key and Stone,” one of the album’s earlier singles, is a tribute to those suffering in Gaza. The band makes no apologies in their determination to throw their support behind the marginalized people of the ancient Levant. A month ago, during their ongoing promotion on social media for the new album, the band posted the following on their Instagram page:
‘This song is written in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West bank, who have endured decades of oppression and occupation. As we witness the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, broadcast live for the world to see, this song is dedicated to those fighting for freedom, self-determination, liberation from oppression— and for their right to return to their homes. F**K IMPERIALISM. FREE PALESTINE’
“Key and Stone,” like all the songs on Primal Pulse Thunder, is propulsive, confident metal that lingers on the edges of death, but finds most of its inspiration in the historical teutonic music of Kreator and Coroner. The production pumps, and the bass and drums of Stig Skog Andersen and Anders Hjorth Mosnes, respectively, are locked in and primal in their efficiency, leaving enough room for guitarists Sander Loen and Tommy Svela to develop infectious grooves on top. Hallgeir Skretting Enoksen’s vocals are immersed in the typical guttural death-adjacent growls that are up front enough to carry the thematic weight of the music. ‘The sons of the dead throw the flaming spear‘, vomits Enoksen, ‘through the heart of the tyrant’s reign. Key and stone.‘ To Palestinians, those old skeleton keys remain a glimmer of hope, the proverbial flaming spear, a reminder that the oppressed never oppress forever, even if the only thing left is a pile of rubble, rebar and stones. While metal has always been firmly entrenched in nihilism, it has also been a way for the marginalized to scream into the void, and Purified in Blood is doing their part with songs like “Key and Stone”.
In context of the album, however, “Key and Stone” maybe one of the weaker tracks. The album starts off with an acoustic intro called “Dyrr” which segues into the title song, “Primal Pulse Thunder.” The song is a dirge-y, doom-dripping demolition ball of detuned guitars and a sludgy, slime-covered rhythm section. Enoksen’s vocals are thick and primal, the repeated mantra of the title giving the song a handrail to grasp before falling to your doom. At the heart of PiB, however, is a late ’80s German thrash band via Norway, and the song transitions into a fast, explosive third section that brings it to a satisfying close. There’s a heft to Purified in Blood‘s music on this album that many bands seem to strive for but fall short. As someone who has reviewed hundreds of metal albums, it’s very rare to find an album that can maintain that intensity for a full record. Primal Blood Thunder, however, is up to the challenge, and it’s a glorious thing to hear.
It’s on “Spiritual Thirst” where the band truly shines. Coming at the midpoint of the album, the doom-inspired song, featuring vocals from Russian throat-singer Albert Kuvezin, drags the bodies through the blood-covered mud. There’s an eerie, repeated percussive motif that lingers over the main guitar melody that gives the song an intense feeling of impending doom, as if rock bottom is much further than you think. The nihilism is full force: ‘I am nothing. I am everything. All is one,’ implores Enoksen on his finest vocal performance on the album. It’s a great set-up for the “Key and Stone” which follows directly after.
Primal Pulse Thunder is far from a perfect album. Closer “Portal” is a ten-minute dirge that has moments of brilliance in its allegiance to the groove, but it wears off after a while. And there are one or two songs that seem to be the equivalent of cheap jump-scares in the slasher flick world of heavy metal. But what the album does well is synthesize all the elements of extreme metal that make it such a nihilist delight, with enough creative risk-taking to keep it interesting (even “Portal” features some psychedelic guitar work and clean vocals in its bridge). But in the end, it wasn’t hard to find the good in what these veterans of Norwegian metal had crafted, like I used to when I wrote for my previous website. Spending an hour with Purified in Blood‘s Primal Pulse Thunder gives you the same thrill as seeing the bad guy in the horror movie finally take a wooden stake through his fucking eyehole as blood splatters the screen. In other words, even though you’ve seen it a hundred times before, it’s a formula that still works and keeps you coming back for more.
