Album Review: Mephistofeles - Whore / I’m Heroin / Satan Sex Ceremonies
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
The Argentinian duo of Gabriel Ravera and Ismeal Dimneza make up one of the biggest doom bands in Argentina, and since 2016, when they released their debut album “Whore” they’ve been wowing crowds across their home continent of South America.
With their debut European tour rapidly approaching, Mephistofeles, with new drummer Luca Frizza in place, have signed to Heavy Psych Sounds, who are repressing their first three albums and the band are set for world domination. Upon releasing their second album, “I’m Heroin” in 2017, Jus Oborn from Electric Wizard said that they were “dirty and sleazy psychedelic doom” and that’s a great way to describe them, but they have so much more to offer.
The three albums are doom grandeur from start to finish, and you get their true sense with “Black Sunday”, as it opens the proceedings on “Whore”. That fuzzy riff is electrifying, and you can feel the heaviness kicking in on “Kill Yourself” which has a demonic bass sound from Dimenza and is the standard bearer for what follows. The album has 7 songs, and it’s safe to say, that all of them are excellent. The more up tempo “Cursed to Death” gets your head moving and it ends with another delectably dark song called “Wizard of Meth”. What I love most is the vocal from Ravera, as it’s reeks of evil intent and wouldn’t be out of place in the 70’s.
They followed this up with 47 minutes of euphoric madness on their second album entitle “I’m Heroin”. The sinister opening to “Transylvanian Funeral” is a rare gem, but when that sounds hits, it hits you deep inside and takes you on an epic 9-minute journey of horror and fear. The album has more of a jam session feel to it, with long grooved out sections, that are a joy to listen to.
With 10 songs to play with, they move effortlessly from one style to another and do whatever the hell they like, with classics such as “White Butterfly” and the hypnotic “Heroin”. This album was clearly where they experimented more with different sounds, whilst still maintaining their authentic selves. “Addicted to Satan” has that horror style organ noise to tempt you into their lair, before they hit you with a groove from another decade. Their ability to change styles and tempo is to be applauded, but it’s “Lucifer Hellride” that will send people into a frenzy as it’s a fuzzy nightmare of a song that you never want to end.
The question on everyone’s lips must have been, how on earth do they follow up that ambitious and supreme album, and they did it by recording 7 songs that were doom gold called “Satan Sex Ceremonies”. With the album title leading the way, at a staggering 15 minutes in length, the drugged fuelled atmospheric tension it created is nothing short of spellbinding. I was enthralled from the off as it’s absorbing, alluring and seductive all at the same time.
It has that authentic doom feel to it throughout the record and it was easy to see why the trio have developed their own cult following across the globe. I suppose the elusiveness of the band, having never toured outside of their own continent before, adds to the mystique, but listening to this live must be akin to watching that final scene from 1973’s The Wicker Man.
They explode into life on “Profanation” with more pounding basslines and a dynamic drum sound, and there is no let up as they keep their feet firmly on your throat with the demonically eerie “Down Again”. Yes, it would be easy to say that they are ripping off Black Sabbath and others before them, but they are streets ahead of the current crop of doom bands, and these repressed albums will show that.
They offer something different, meaningful and gentler with an instrumental track called “Overdose”, before the evil screaming and howling returns on “Syringe”. They create such stirring soundscapes that I can’t help but think of the 1980’s TV series, Hammer House of Horror TV, as it would be a perfect soundtrack. The album culminates with another behemoth of a song called “Chains of Agony” with a single guitar intro that whispers evil thoughts to you as the song is built up impressively to finish off a fiendishly fantastic album.
