Review by Vladimir on January 29, 2024.

For many years, Italy has continued to grow with many exceptional and excellent black metal bands, and it still continues to do so. Case and point of this review will be the band Infernal Angels, where I’ll be covering their sixth full-length album Shrine Of Black Fire , released on November 24th, 2023 via Immortal Frost Productions. Should you dare to approach the shrine of black fire, then be prepared as to what you’re about to witness.

The album begins with the dark ambient opening track 'Abyss Oath' with sounds of a female voice whispering, demonic gutturals and eerie winds howling through the hallway, setting the macabre atmosphere of the album straight away. From the second track 'In The Silence Ov Tehom', all hell breaks loose as black metal comes blasting with hateful misanthropic tremolo riffs, blast beat drumming and harsh guttural vocals, while also throwing an atmospheric mid-section with open string chords and drumming in a slower tempo before kicking in. The second track is a nice starting point that lets you get a nice look at what you’ll exactly be hearing from here on out as the album progresses from one track to another, while also experiencing the dynamic curve of each song as it takes you through all nine circles of hell to the shrine of black fire with every riff that follows. A nice breakaway that gives you a brief moment of taking your breath, or in this case 'Fire As Breath', is the fourth track with its clean guitar section that lasts for about 2 minutes before the demonic growl comes shouting at your face, followed by the macabre black metal serenade in the background. This track in particular stands out the most out of the rest, as it presents a nice example of a song having a proper introduction that slowly builds from the bottom up and leads to dissonance and darkness. The only exception on this album comes in the form of the instrumental fifth track 'A Gateway To Purification', which has a powerful chord progression that conveys such a macabre atmosphere, especially through dissonant chords, although it also manages to throw in some gothic choirs, chanting, shouting and gutturals in the background near the very end. As the album goes on, the journey to the void descends with each song, but once it reaches the final track, you can really feel the epic closure that gave the entire experience a grand payoff.

The songwriting is very complex, dynamic and progressive for a black metal album that also conveys a lot of intense misanthropy and brutality, all the way down to the vocals and instrumental work, while dealing with the themes of Luciferianism, Chaos and Gnosticism. From one song to another, it feels like a complete descent into hell, with there being very little signs of anything remotely human, and what really contributes a lot to it is the general stylistic consistency of this album. The album may feel formulaic to some people, especially since each song feels heavily related to each other, however I think that despite every song being similar in style, they all have a different structure and also a different way of communicating to the listener. What I truly adored about this album is the fact that it feels like an actual musical journey, where each song tells its own tale, which all nicely leads up to the grand finale. The album has a very top notch and high-quality production with a nice and polished sound which keeps the rawness to a bare minimum.

Personally, I’d say that this album was really worth a go from start to finish, and I had no doubt about it once I got halfway through. Infernal Angels made an excellent black metal album that really shines with all powers from hell, but what really highlights the album is how you experience this journey with each track. Should you come across this album, do not hesitate to press play and immerse yourself to experience its full glory.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10