Transilvania - Magia Posthuma
- Jay
- Mar 21
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 23
FOR FANS OF: NIFELHEIM, DESTRÖYER 666, AURA NOIR
🌐 BANDCAMP | METAL-ARCHIVES | RYM
THRASH-O-METER
★★★★★★★★☆☆ SONGWRITING
★★★★★★★☆☆☆ LONGEVITY
★★★★★★★☆☆☆ THEMES
★★★★★★★★☆☆ PRODUCTION
★★★★★★★☆☆☆ MUSICIANSHIP
★★★★★★★★☆☆ CHARACTER
★★★★★★★★☆☆ THRASHABILITY
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ALBUM:
Tuberculosis Reigns
The Faustian Bargain
Thrall
For all its grime, evilousness and primitive attack, at its best blackened thrash metal is also disarmingly earnest, even vulnerable, and that sense of sincerity makes it feel deeply genuine.
'Magia Posthuma' moves between semblances of atmosphere and fierce abrasion; the titular opener carries rich in mood and in a near epic sweep. Thrall picks up in speed and especially its latter half onboarded me on this sh!t - its bestial energy and especially the delicious, delicious guitar shenanigans is exactly what I'm looking for in music in general:
brave aspirations that push the envelope!
Tuberculosis Reigns falls on you like a host of hungry flies on your brutalised carcass - I dare you to not to raise your head and see what the hell is going on when this thing hits. This should've been the introductory piece to the album!
Closing to 50 minutes with several songs brushing the seven-minute mark, its a fairly long haul. Some tracks are content to luxuriate in their own nasty aura - all snarls and wicked guitars, which I can live with. But the stronger cuts genuinely surprise, delight and gets yer noggin' boppin'!
Vision and talent
Beneath its ragged exterior lies a disarray of order and detail, hitting close enough to the recognizable parameters to conjure an appropriate atmosphere and flaying; its not just about genre obedience as this sh!t is all about realizing a vision with a Lucifer-given talent. In a word 'Magia Posthuma' sounds great.
That said - the final track and a kind of counterpart to the opening piece with its grandeur, The Faustian Bargain, is the one clear outlier - sounding very compressed and plain feeble. Perhaps it was recorded elsewhere or in a different point in time entirely. Who the hell knows these things!
Transilvania’s new album 'Magia Posthuma' lands squarely within its niche and greatly pleases those attuned to the genre charms. There are moments of greatness here and there but the whole however does stop short from delivering a truly lasting (and nasty) mark.
PS. There'd be less wars in the world if people would listen more to blackened thrash metal - or maybe its just me and how happy finding this kind of sh!t makes me. Go figure.
Good sh!t
