Now here's a band that in these days do not sound anything like they did in their early stages back in the first half of 2000's. Nowadays Barbarian Prophecies play bouncy death metal, but on their initial releases their craft was black metal / death metal / grindcore hybrid. They hail from Spain, but please do not expect to hear any fucking flamenco here, on their sophomore output, 'War Is Imminent' demo (or "inminent", as they put it)!

Actually, the term "barbarian" fits with this music very well. It's often hectic, too, something like Mediterranean black metal a lá Moonspell or Rotting Christ in their demo eras, minus the melodiousness. There are memorable melodic riffs here okay, albeit sometimes buried under all the other racket going on. Some riffing is very punky, some palm muted, but the most of it is super-fast; it reminds me of Unlord's fast-as-fuck black metal, but is a tad less polished. As the song lengths range between 1:07 and 2:48, the compositions cannot be varying? Wrong! This is just so rapid, that they do not need to go on for 4 minutes... The debut demo 'Conquerors of the Wolfthrone' had some melodic parts (but no fucking flamenco!), but this hasn't got much of melodiousness left at all, apart from riffs thing. The drummer throws in suitable beats from blasting to skank beats and anything in-between; well, a lot of various fast beats anyway. For these guys, mid-paced is kind of fast; it's not heard often at all, but yeah, it is definitely not lullaby time.

The high-pitched vocals are absolutely rabid! The ranting is insane, and also includes some vomit sounds. There are lower growled and bellowed voices utilized too, apparently all by just one guy. The latter ones are way less feverish as the main maniacal act. I find the unique, evil lyrics fun; they are totally not rhymed, but made for manic declamation; like insane stream of consciousness.

This is kind of a throwback music-wise. It definitely does not offer anything that hasn't been heard before (more like what was heard prior to 2004). That is the sole real deficiency about this demo, basically. However, the band's enthusiasm and energy is totally tangible and riveting. With its suitably violent production job, this thing gets a thumb up. Every instrument and vocals are audible, but as this is a demo, it's not polished and a listener might have to strain a bit to hear it all. The final track is Kataklysm live cover 'Machiavellian', and one might hear their influence in Barbarian Prophecies' music, if listened attentively.

I was introduced to Barbarian Prophecies via their third album 'XIII' in 2013. I liked it a lot, but for some reason I did not follow them later on. Then, I grabbed 'War Is Imminent' for ultra-cheap price and to tell the truth, was not impressed at all. I have learned to give more chances to releases, and am thankful for my patience. Once again, my opinion changed fast, and I am totally swinging to these ugly sounds of barbarism.

P.S. The CD includes 'Conquerors of the Wolfthrone' demo as MP3s (plus some other multimedia material) so one can get to the roots of this band.

Reviewed by Lane
08/28/2025 18:50