MACTATUS
This is
a band that is born under the wing of the first wave of symphonic black metal,
and that after some demos have finally recorded the debut in 1997, when the big
names, the fathers of the genre, were in top of the metal charts. “Blot” (Vote
9) is an excellent example of the mystic majesty of the Norwegian type of symphonic
black metal. There’s the correct dirty and underground recording, a great
atmosphere created by sorrowful dark melodies using guitars and keyboards to
accomplish the evocative objective. The mysterious vision of the northern nature
is the best background and Mactatus showed to be really involved in that
influence, the evil mood is something hidden, ready to hit at the right moment.
Sometimes they sound like a more territorial form of the Emperor’s creation, a
twilight in the fog in a magical scenario.
Strongly linked to the roots of the genre Mactatus showed great skill recreating
the right mood that some band were losing for a thrashy and retro approach.
After
some problems with their label they finally return in 1998 with “Provenance
of Cruelty” (Vote 8.5) a mature form of symph. Black metal,
in their style. The music is very similar to the debut, but there is a more
professional recording, sometimes inadequate to the obscure form of the
Mactatus’s creation, but the overall quality is almost the same, the first
half of the album is excellent and only in the second half there are two dull
songs. Looking deeper in those songs there’s a worrying sign, because the
territorial matrix is coming away for a more general satanic worship. The
demonstration of that Mactatus’s regression is their third album “The
Complex Bewitchment” (Vote 7.5), where death and heavy influences changed
the music atmosphere, like Dimmu Borgir made in their commercial success.
It was very sad to see a band change its identity, only audible in few songs
of the album, but the wind was changing and the smell of possible success took
away from their right path so many bands, like Mactatus. This album is divided
in two hemispheres, a death-black symphonic, surely the worst, and a more
traditional one of symph. Black metal, that surely saves the overall album but
that can’t be compared to the previous albums excellence. The artwork is
horrible and the band chose to leave apart the face-painting, but differently
from the masters Emperor they lost great part of their dark breeze.
“Suicide” (2002, Vote 3) is the right title to represent the Mactatus act
of self-destruction, I can’t find a single word to defend that release,
it’s a total crap, poor riffs, horrible arrangements and a complete lack of
atmosphere. The Mactatus’s background is absent and the new musical choice
is absolutely empty of every idea. Mactatus are an example of how the
Norwegian black metal scene is involving its style, and only few intelligent
musicians are able to survive to that selection.