#42 Flork Reviews: Toreva - Damnatio Memoriae (2022)

 

Toreva - Damnatio Memoriae (2022)

By Flork

Being a part of the Christian faith has often been associated with a conventional lifestyle and living as best and accordingly to the Holy Bible. Over the years and throughout the history of Rock ‘n Roll, Christian themes and imagery have played instrumental roles in several genres such as Motown and Southern rock as well as Christian rock itself. Metal, however, has always been a bit of ‘pushing the envelope’ for Christian musicians looking to create a rougher edge to their sound, especially those who love death or black metal and its gloomier side. But Christian death and black metal eventually did get played and has built up a significantly large audience, although it hasn’t been an easy road to travel down. I mean, isn’t Black Metal all about Satan worshipping and cults and generally in opposition to God and the conventions of Christianity? Isn’t Black Metal evil? According to Toreva, the first “unblack metal” band from Slovakia the Florkster has ever heard, yes. It is. Still, this doesn’t mean that the music itself cannot be combined with the divinity of God’s word and love. After all, Christianity, too, has seen its fair share of pain and misery throughout the ages. And so, it all becomes a matter of reaching those who only hear Satan’s message, using the music as a language to connect with them in hopes they will hear the other side of the story. Toreva achieves this with masterfully-crafted compositions and prove that both good and evil can coexist within the same genre. 

Toreva not only spreads the word of God in their lyrics, which are beautiful and deal with themes of poverty or those accursed by the evils of the world, but also display extreme talent in their instruments and ability to write thought-provoking music. The tracks are not overly long nor short, with several around 7-8 minutes but interspersed with shorter ones, such as the intro Doznievajúce údery and the closing track Smútok a pokoj. Everything in between is mesmerising, blending an atmospheric backdrop with demonic vocals. The album is hard and generally fast, although its speed is still far enough away from a tempo that leaves you exhausted or out of breath. My favourites are V peci biedy (In the chamber of poverty) and Márnosťou utešovaní, the latter being a colossal 15-minute ‘piece de resistance’ of epic proportions.

And my overall opinion? Damnatio Memoriae is brilliant and something I could listen to over and over, without any feelings of guilt or betrayal. I love this album and look forward to hearing their older stuff, as well as future releases.