Throne of Molok - Impulsive Assault

The Italian progressive black metal band Throne of Molok is certainly one of the most progressive and unique black metal bands to release an album since Dimmu Borgir released For All Tid, where they fused Norwegian black metal with tons of orchestral and symphonic elements. A quick way to describe these guys’ music is that it’s 50% black metal, 44% industrial, and 6% metalcore. I’ve never heard a black metal band in my life that shoved in so much industrial sound into their music. I know there are other black metal bands that do that like Samael and Mysticum, but even they don’t put as much industrial music into their sound as much as Throne of Molok does. But remember, just progression alone doesn’t ensure that the record will be great; it has to be done well and sound good. And in the case of this album, IT SOUNDS GOOD!

The band is excellent at what they do, but unfortunately there aren’t any specific members of the band that stick out to me. I do think the vocalist has a very unique and crisp sound (which makes him lucky because they turned up the vocals really loud) and is even an excellent growler. The drummer’s style is extremely abstract and unfortunately doesn’t fit the music in some parts. The guitarists are fucking amazing, I’ll just say that right off the bat; if I HAD to choose my favorite musician, it would be the two guitarists. The song that really shows what the guitarists are capable of is my favorite song off the record, Nuclear Christ (I love that name!).

There are two basic types of industrial music that I’m familiar with. The first type is the slower, more electronic type of industrial played by groups like Angelspit. Then there’s the type of industrial music that I like most, which is the faster, more chaotic sound with fast computer-generated sounds alternating channels (making it even more chaotic). This is why I love Nuclear Christ so much, because you can hear in the intro that the two completely different types of music fit perfectly together like puzzle pieces. Although Nuclear Christ wasn’t the first song that I heard, Diverting Sea Levels (the opening track) shows that these guys are fucking METAL! The first song is also a great example of the metalcore-style breakdowns that they use occasionally on the record.

The unrelenting fury that is released by these cybergoth metalheads known as Throne of Molok is not going to be an experience that you’ll forget. This album obviously isn’t going to impress everyone because of how extremely unique and different it is from the rest of the metal world. The people that would have an easier time enjoying this record are the Samael fans (for obvious reasons). But even though I’m not a HUGE Samael fan (I only have one of their albums), this is a record that I LOVE and will NEVER forget. I also love the large amount of material contained in this album (15 songs). Being pretty much the most progressive and creative black metal record I’ve ever heard, Impulsive Assault earns my score of 18/20. I will be the first person to buy concert tickets when they come to Seattle.