Metal Underground.com

Genre mashups are much more prominent nowadays, becoming more of an expected norm than the oddity they used to be. The early mixing of symphonic or melodic power metal elements eventually gave way to truly odd combinations (‘80s pop black metal is now officially a thing), so why not add one more to throw on the pile? Glorior Belli’s contribution to the world of opposing musical styles is a combination of southern hard rock riffs underneath rasped black metal shrieks.

When I say “southern hard rock,” I don’t mean Chrome Division’s motorcycle and booze rockfest. This take on southern rock is more along the lines of a soundtrack for the guy who lives in the swamp and has a confederate flag draped across the back of his truck. If the cover wasn’t a tip-off, this is a fairly off-the-wall album that doesn’t seem to be taking itself too seriously. Those are literally alligators creating chaos out in space on the cover of an album titled “Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls” and there are songs named things like “A Hoax, A Croc!”

The rock vibe is prevalent throughout most of the album, with only “I Asked For Wine, He Gave Me Blood” dropping that element and going for straight black metal instead. If twangy southern rock and harsh black metal seem like they’d be at odds, rest assured: they are. These songs take some getting used to, and on the first few tracks the vocals don’t mesh perfectly with the guitar tones. However, by the time “Ain’t No Pit Deep Enough” rolls around, the two extremes somehow meet in the middle and it all starts to work. Kicking off the final third of the album, “Backwoods Bayou” changes the formula, ditching the vocals and offering a cinematic feel with the music, like it should be accompanying epic and earth-shattering events. Although it’s the album’s shortest track, frankly it steals the show.

Fans of the NOLA scene are probably going to get more out of “Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls” than the fans of pure black metal, and while it is an uneven album that’s pretty bizarre, there is enough awesome metal going on to make it worth checking out.