MABB v6.6.6

The underground decided they're too trendy? Shit, I'd better delete them from my last.fm and set Zarach-Baal-Tharagh on repeat while I'm away at work

The underground decided they're too trendy? Shit, I'd better delete them from my last.fm and set Zarach-Baal-Tharagh on repeat while I'm away at work

I'll admit it - I was weak. A passing glance at a list of black metal bands, and I see the admittedly enticing name Zarach 'Baal' Tharagh. A visit to his MA profile later, and I'm immediately stunned by the number of releases he has. Next thing I know, I've succumbed to his biggest ploy, and I'm searching for any of his releases. I know, I should've known from the start that anyone releasing so many recordings in so little time must not have spent much time writing the actual songs, but curiousity got the best of me. Of course, he claims that all his material was written from as early as '83, and is just now recording it, but that hardly changes the fact that he's produced some of the worst recorded out put I've ever heard.



I've kept downloading, and occasionally buying the stray release by him (dirt cheap, as he knows not many will pay for this kind of thing), hoping that somewhere, something has got be an improvement. As a result, I now have a large hoard of his apparent legacy, just rotting away, most of them given not more than a single listen (if even that). Well, I figure I might as well say a thing or two about them before condemning them to the digital trash, since aside from collecting his entire catalogue (an impossible task to say the very least), they no longer have any purpose now that my curiousity is assuaged and my ear drums ruptured.



I will admit right now that out of the ONE HUNDRED releases he has so far, Monsieur Mertz has put out some material that is less than horrible. Some might even be tolerable (though I'm not ready to say any approaches good status). This however, is not. In fact, it's some of the absolutely fucking terrible garbage I've ever heard. Aside from the untitled debut (which I still can't find - anyone?), this is his first recorded material, and it shows. Horribly. All ZBT trademarks are here, including loer-than-lo production, unchanging drummachine, tuneless "riffs", and shrieks that would make Maniac cringe. All songs are numbered chapters, most likely because he's too lazy for song titles, but also because this is essentially one song, and the "chapters" are nothing but marking places where they're broken up with a second of silence. EVERYTHING sounds the same here. Everything. The exact fucking same formula is used in every song, and I honestly can't discern one part from the next.



That formula consists of the typical drummachine, guitar, vox approach. Not really bad in theory, but let's take a closer look at the specifics. The drummachine is the same half second loop repeated over and over and over and over. Hyper fast doublebass with a snare every fourth, and a crash every fourth snare. And when I say fast, I mean it sounds like a dial tone. Riffs are nothing more than noise. Tuneless, sloppy noise. I mean I'm a fan of rawness, but when you can't even hear the riffs, it's a bit too far for fuck's sake. Vocals are insane shrieking that breach the threshold of pain and then some, and while it might sound good as an occasional off-hand scream, when the entire song has the sounds of a tortured goose mixed with white noise as "singing", it wears just a tiny bit thin.



Add this formula to every song, you've got 16 minutes of torture where I would honestly rather listen to radio pop-punk than this. Well, I probably wouldn't go THAT far, but it's no exaggeration to say this is the absolute worst thing in metal I've ever heard. 2 points because the opening scream in the first song makes me shudder each time.