Description

Red vinyls with poster and lyric booklet. Limited 726 copies

Proscriptor is short for Proscriptor McGovern (AKA Russ R. Givens) a man that has played in bands like Absu, Melechesh, Equimanthorn and Judas Iscariot to name a few. The Venus Bellona is his first solo album and its nowhere near the black metal music that can be found the bands mentioned above. On this album Proscriptor is mixing dark ambience, echoing spoken voices, traditional Scottish/Celtic influences and sparse drums as well as acoustic guitar, Proscriptor is quite capitivating throughout, using a handful of left field tricks. He is digging deep into his Scottish heritage (think Groundskeeper Willie on crack) and uses part music, part spoken-word storytelling of some sort of Gaelic Battle-Of-Something or about destroying a village in eleven minutes. My favorite tracks are the acoustic balladry of Hi Ri Ri Ri Tha E Tichinn or After the Massacre at Glencoe, though many of the other tracks contain some haunting and resonating parts. The final track is a black metal whispered vocals over rather rock’n’roll styling and it succeeds quite nicely. In these soundscapes that Proscriptor has created we found some very beautiful guitar arrangements here, and some memorable vocal parts, particularly Lady Day Eve, but they are tarnished by being alternated with screechy, noisy interludes that are supposed to place you on a battlefield somewhere in Europe. Maybe Proscriptor has taken himself and this concept album a bit too seriously and to far for his own good. The Venus Bellona is an interesting album with a lot of promise that, sadly, it doesn’t really live up to even if there are parts of it that are easy to like.

Track list:
1. An Initium For You
2. I Am The One
3. Our Blood And Veins From The McGovern Regiment
4. Hi Ri Ri Tha E Tichinn
5. Lady Day Eve
6. Madeleine
7. Kiss Of Shame
8. Tractatus
9. My Legacy: A Crysknife
10. Serpentine Of Six-fold Stars
11. The Barren Stones Of Lughnasadh
12. Far Away From Balkan Hills
13. De La Fletus Des Athroll (After The Massacre Of Glencoe Part II)
14. Chomere!
15. Commanding The Dragon Of Keppoch
16. Ground’s Afire
17. Defeat
18. We Raise Our Silver Goblets In Triumph
19. We Procured The Non-existence Of Xalteun
20. Fiem Habere: Flames For You/I Ran (so Far Away)-A Flock Of Seagulls cover