Ugly, mean, depressing…ILSA is all of these things. But what else is new? These morose cats from DC have been dishing out sludgy death metal with nary a ray of light for quite some time now, and Preyer sees them at their most misanthropic and disturbing. The album starts with a truly unsettling monologue from one Sean Sellers, devout Satanist and the youngest killer to ever be executed on death row, detailing the cold blooded murder of a convenience store clerk. That gets the album off to a nice brisk start and things don’t get much more cheerful from there.
As far as the music goes, much of it is doom-tinged, sludgy death metal delivered with no less than three guitars and the hate-filled rasps of Orion. Shorter tracks like ‘Shibboleth’ and ‘Behind The Veil’ bring pummeling speed into view, but most of the cuts here are slower, oozy crushers like ‘Mother Of God’ and ‘Widdershins’. One oddity is a song called ‘Lady Diamond’, where the lyrics are directly taken from a medieval ballad, but the music is more punishing death metal. The album also touches on themes of Judas Iscariot being the fall guy for religious killers, anti-fascism and Christian deceit.
Really, it is nothing that hasn’t been done previously by ILSA, and not adding much new to their canon of misery – but if you have a hankering for doom/sludge/death that is relentlessly heavy and downbeat, Preyer is here to satisfy.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
ILSA
Preyer
Relapse
3.5 / 6