April 6, 2014

Filthy Music Review - 'Man Gremmes Kan: On a Pulpit of Souls'


Man Gremmes Kan – On a Pulpit of Souls (2013)

Glorious North Productions

Review by Jude Felton

Back in the day, tape trading was the best way to get ahold of new and exciting music; stuff that wasn’t necessarily available in your local independent record store. Now, while trading does still exist, and even a few records stores do survive, it’s the evil internet that drives forward the discovery of new artists. Agree or disagree, but it is a fact, and one of the best ways, I have found, is through the gem that is Bandcamp. That is how I came to stumble upon this snarling abomination of a tape.


Man Gremmes Kan hail from Norway, and deliver a blistering black metal assault over the course of 6 tunes. Alternating between Norwegian and English lyrics, it’s a collection of songs that very rarely let up.

As with most purchases through Bandcamp, along with the physical copy of your purchase you generally also get the album, EP or single in digital format too. That is no exception here either, so I have had the pleasure of being assaulted by On a Pulpit of Souls in both formats. Both sound terrific, although there is no escaping the raw beauty of delving into this music on tape. It’s dirty, messy and caustic and is completely at odds with the digital mentality.

However, digital does serve its purpose; I don’t have a cassette player in my car, but I can connect up my ipod. So, listening to music such as this, in the car, does help me tolerate the idiot-infested drives I encounter!


The music itself has its blackened and Satanic heart deeply rooted in traditional black metal, yet as in the case of many modern death metal bands, that look to the past, it also sounds fresh and exciting, and in their own words “holds a strong independent spirit from those that came before”. The bottom line is that it is an excellent tape, with the music being a perfect antidote for dealing with everyday life. It’s fast, aggressive and passionate and thoroughly evil; just what the doctor ordered. The pick of the songs, for me, would be Vaar Tornekrone, although all are very good, with no filler here.

The tape itself is limited to 100 copies, and at the time of writing this is down to the last one, I believe. So you might want to get in sharpish if you want to snag one. 

Tracklist:

1. To Bear False Witness
2. Our Genocide God
3. Vaar Tornekrone
4. World Turned to Ash
5. Om Blèkes Fall
6. On a Pulpit of Souls

On a Pulpit of Souls is available here.

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