Label: Nigra Mors / Azermedoth Records / Murmur Legacy

Date: December 24th, 2022

When you go ahead and investigate the persons behind Luciferian Pact, you will know exactly what this band sounds like.

There, the shortest review ever written!

Easy there, please, ladies hold your horses, of course I’m going to explain it further. Jesus, some people can’t take a joke.

Luciferian Pact might be a brand new name, coming up with the debut recording and a full length at that. However, they are everything but newcomers to the scene. What’s more, three members of this collective are not only musically present on “Summoning Evil Spirits”, but they also stand behind the labels that released it. Namely, Nocturno (Xerión, Nigra Mors), Lord Marganor (Ereshkigal, Azermedoth Records) and Heinous Murmur (Unholy Funeral, Murmur Legacy).

And what do you know! Luciferian Pact sounds just like these three combined their creative forces and made a record. Bestiality of Unholy Funeral, coldness of Ereshkigal and a subtle folklore in the best tradition of Xerión’s work. With all of the above combined, Luciferian Pact reminds me of early Kampfar at times. Adding to the list of influences, naturally, early second wave Scandinavian heroes, some German frontrunners and, of course, South American inputs.

The trio gave us all they have in their respective arsenal. You’ve got melodic yet grim lead guitars. Strong and blasphemous screams. Drums that are dynamic enough, never falling for the usual traps of overusing blast beats. Keyboards are the bearers of those epic, monolithic feelings one can easily relate to Kampfar. Or Xerión, for that matter. Bass guitar is the biggest surprise of the album, being very much present not just as a source of depth, but its musicality often comes to the surface with a bunch of noticeable sections.

All of this is gathered under the production that is just about perfect for the genre in question. It was easily predictable that musicians with so much experience between themselves wouldn’t let this segment slip.

Plus, the album is wrapped in an appealing cover and booklet (“loving you was red”).

And then I come to the negatives. Most of all, there’s the question of lyrics. Just hearing the vocals, one can note a diversity. Appearance of some, let’s call it Aztec, ritual chanting in the opening of “Black Chalice of Endless Sins” is an excellent addition. In combination with clean chant and typical black metal screams, these portray a struggle between the natives and the conquistadors’ missionaries for the Aztec souls. However, the lyrics, as in the remainder of tracks, are fairly simple and often rely on blasphemous, satanic and antichristian clichés and paroles. In avoiding those, Luciferian Pact can look for an overly ideological bettering of their creations.

There’s also the question of musical imagination of the trio. The triad of differently aimed black metal sources sounds fresh and interesting, but it seems to me like Luciferian Pact often forgets one or two ingredients for a couple of minutes, leading the listener to lose focus in an almost hypnotic repetition of a not-so-developed piece of a song. Hence, further attention to details would be another step towards elevating the band to the position they surely can achieve.

Both of my remarks are very fixable. Once again, I’m speaking about musicians that have immense experience behind them. They’ve got pieces of outstanding black metal already under their belts. “Summoning Evil Spirits” is a decent enough album which should pleasure many black hearts, but given the abilities of the band’s members, this should be nothing but a calm before the storm.