Arts, simply put, play dirty manky lo-fi black metal. There are no nuances and subtleties to be dug out from the mire. Under the Arts pseudonym (and also of Ancestors, Haxan and Hallow) Mark Mark McCoy’s newest LP “Thousand Wounds of War” is a short barrage too, at a scant 13 minutes. Certainly not on the same wing as his more ambitious, expansive contemporaries, Arts keep things much shorter with no song clocking in at over three minutes.
Unsurprisingly, the production is… well, the production is almost non-existent. Like the old kvlt cliché of how black metal should sound, this grates on the ears. Being a one man entity, Arts runs the risk of being discarded as just another harsh bedroom black metal project but this LP resides in that vein certainly regarding the production.
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/01-Unleash-Our-Will.mp3|titles=Arts Unleash Our Will]
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/04-Thousand-Wounds-Of-War.mp3|titles=Arts Thousand Wounds Of War]
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/06-Winter-Wails.mp3|titles=Arts Winter Wails]
In typical old school black metal fashion, “Thousand Wounds of War” is dripping with misanthropic atmosphere and for such a short running time, and a rather palpable atmosphere is conjured at that. The conciseness of the LP is important too, keeping the molesting assault to a succinct duration and perhaps practicing a quality not quantity approach.
Arts aren’t doing anything new, but that appears to be the point, the LP travels well-trod ground. Sounds of very early Finnish BM can be heard writhing noisily within this din and the band, or man rather, moves between fast paced blasting and soul destroying mid-paced BM misanthropy, which aren’t new revelations. However, McCoy knows exactly what he’s doing with these tried and tested formulas. Perhaps “Thousand Wounds of War” could be construed as an unintentional homage to those aforementioned influences or perhaps not but what’s certain is that such vile BM needs to be powerful and executed with violent intent in order to come across well (or tr00 if we can be silly about it for a moment) and Arts’ LP offering in “Thousand Wounds of War” is pretty much that.
“Thousand Wounds of War” was available through Youth Attack but has swiftly sold out. Keep your eyes peeled for a possible re-press if you’re lucky.
Haxan
June 19, 2012 at 6:11 am
This is basically Arts Demo, from 2005, when it was released in cassette. It has only been re-mastered and re-released on 12″ vinyl this year under the title “Thousand Wounds of War”. It also features an alternate cover art from the original Demo. Nevertheless a true black sonic attack.