Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus. Roughly translated: with blood and whip, we worship the dark. This is the latest collection of atrocities from GNAW THEIR TONGUES, an eight song investigation into the rites and rituals that emerge from the copper-scented frenzy of the serial killer, the obsessive acts of death worship enacted by those that live on the edge of abyss, the limits of experience sought by black cults. The sound is, as always, immensely heavy, with fractured drums and tunderous tympani skins reverberating within a maelstrom of seething black doom, screeching classical strings, horns, piano, and some of the most vomitous vocals imaginable. However, Per Flagellum Sanguemque is marked by the most frenetic percussive attack that we have heard from GNAW THEIR TONGUES, with volleys of chaotic drumming, fractured blasts, and maniacally complex patterns that sometimes seem to border on free-jazz drumming.
Review
Best taken as a whole, each track here builds toward a greater mass, amping up the dread and skin-crawling strings, the martial brass and clattering drums, the sinister choirs and vein-popping shrieks until you just can't take any more - the effect is cumulative. One track alone will creep you out, but all eight? Brrrrrrr....I'm looking over my shoulder the entire time I write this. - The Sleeping Shaman 5/5
