“A priest who had an affair with a 12 or 15 year old girl brought to one of their encounters, a consecrated host, and he touched her vagina and he said ‘this is how God loves you” and then he raped her”.
And so that creepy quote begins the debut EP from Milwaukee’s Prezir (Serb-Croatian for ‘contempt’), letting you know what a blasphemous noise you are in for right away. The band notably features Rory Heikkila from Shroud of Despondency on guitar/bass and vocalist Luka Đorđević from Khazaddum, one of my new favorite death metal bands, and plays some blistering, seething…..and well contemptuous black metal , and they play it rather well.
After the opening intro, the EP blazes by with 5 more tracks, totaling almost 30 minutes. “Devotee Decree” gets the chaos going for real with a nasty but sharp guitar tone and Đorđević’s array of screams and growls. The riffs are shrill and busy, with some sneering, appropriately blasphemous and hateful melodies slicing and dicing the air. There is some of Shroud of Despondency’s nastier moments here (Pine and Tied to a Dying Animal), and none of the early folky, foresty stuff or the later symphonic stuff (Family Tomb).
The next 4 tracks deliver more of the same; very effective, no nonsense black metal. “Holy Men of Putridity” and “Dar-El Harb” (Christianity isn’t just under attack here) being a particularity unholy duo. 6 plus minute closer, “Serpents in the House of Ra” ends the EP with a nice Dark Throne/ Goatwhore thrashy, grooving riff thrown into the mix along with a nice Balkan/acoustic fade out.
Also of note, the EP’s cover (Gustave Dore’s ‘Crusades’) is downright perfect for the music and themes contained within, music which I hope Heikkila continues to make at Shroud of Despondency levels of productivity and quality.
