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ARCH TOLL  Poisener  LP   (Legion Blotan)   23.99


Previously released on cassette, this is the Lp version of the first full length from Arch Toll, which is basically Sump operating under a different name. With both George Proctor (also of White Medal and Mutant Ape) and Gareth Howells (Axnaar) behind this album, you'd no doubt expect this to be another blast of filthy, no-fi blackened punk violence, but instead you get thrashy black metal forged under the rotten gaze of the worm Ouroboros that moves along at a pretty good clip. The minimal set-up (drums / guitar / vocals) and production qualities (dirty and low-fi) are reminiscent of Sump, but the music is more like a mildly brain-damaged take on early second wave black metal and certain strains of primitive cavernous death metal, full of simple, hypnotic tremolo riffs and sloppy, blasting drums and an undercurrent of barbaric violence. The four long songs ("Alchemy", "From This Eye", "Serpent Tail", "Landwella") weave through a crude labyrinth of riffs and reverb, the ghostly guitars becoming a softened blur of fast jangled minor-key chords like some atavistic version of Darkthrone shot up with lots of noisy weirdness, off-beat feedback and effects fuckery slipped into the blasting blackened thrash. The circular and minimalist nature of Arch Toll's music riffs is used to create a hypnotic, ritualistic atmosphere that fans of Bone Awl and Ildjarn will groove on, too, but this is definitely most closely aligned with the uniquely warped aesthetic of the Legion Blotan camp.

Released in a limited edition of one hundred copies in a screen printed sleeve.