Reaper – The Atonality of Flesh Review

The two-minute “Intro” sets the tone for The Atonality of Flesh by telling the feel-good tale of the death of Robert-François Damiens, the would-be assassin of King Louis XV. It recounts, in horrifyingly gruesome detail, the four-hour torture and execution that saw the failed assassin literally being disassembled piece by piece, while a bloodthirsty crowd stood by and watched. The track ends with the commentary “that was a festival, with which today’s festivals can’t compete” before the record begins in earnest with the punky black metal of “Dogs of the Crumbled Firmament.” It’s clear from the get-go that little has changed for Reaper, stylistically speaking, as the track harkens back to the days when black metal was really just NWoBHM tunes on high doses of Satan.

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