BARATHRUM
BARATHRUM “Überkill”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Ah, the joys of simplicity in a complicated world! Something we can appreciate in just about any walk of life, but especially so when it comes to heavy metal. Finland’s veteran hellraisers BARATHRUM absolutely understand this principle and put into good effect on the smartly titled “Überkill”.
This is pure first wave black metal with virtually no influence from the 90’s Norse brand. That means you expect a lot of catchy early BATHORY/VENOM/HELLHAMMER riffs in all their knuckle-dragging glory. BARATHRUM boasts two bassists and you can easily hear the extra “oomph” that lends to their barbaric tunes. The tracks here range from doomy to moderately fast...there’s no emphasis on blasting your brains out with speed. “Death By Steel”, “Ritual Murder”, “Denial of God”...even the song titles show the commitment to purity and while they could be considered very cliched, keep in mind BARATHRUM has been around since 1990 and so they have a time-honored right to play in this style.
It’s clean, simple devil worship and the cartoon supervillain vocals of Demonos Sova fit that like a glove. He’s got a super nasal, snide aspect to his singing that accentuates the tunes and he also doesn’t sound anything like Tom Warrior, Cronos or Quorthon. With “Überkill”, you get nine delightfully old school tracks of ancient black metal madness that doesn’t overthink where it’s coming from...a fun listen for sure!