Bok - Metastasis Dei

Very little is known about the Netherlands’ Black Metal entity known as Bok. Spearheaded by MvG who does everything versus his work in other projects like Experimentum where he is teamed up with others, this project is more Black Metal than Industrial/ Ambient focused and is as venomous as it is mystical. A demo of only 5 tracks, it does clock nearly half an hour, though most of that is thanks to the rather ambient outro of ‘As Black Willows Spread, the Pale Widows Cry.’ A very ambient and calming piece, it doesn’t quite reflect the rage that is shown on most of the other tracks and it does feel like it goes on for quite a bit too long. Still, it does ring quite soundly of MvG’s other projects and when interspersed with the Black Metal more focused tracks it does quite well. Most Metal fans will probably feel the starting track and closing track is just noise that can be skipped, but what most really came for was the middle of the album.

Taking a mix of Watain meets Funeral Mist, the music from Bok on “Metastasis Dei” when not droning is very guitar focused. MvG delivers those very familiar tremolo picking focused riffs that are familiar with Watain without the slower melodic parts while he snarls along, presenting the rather standard European Black Metal styled music with ‘Deep Inside…’ It is fast, much like what Watain and Marduk do best and razor sharp, and while the vocals and guitars are right in front with the drums sadly somewhat buried, it still features lots of that late 90s Black Metal mystique. On the ambient/ industrial side, MvG does like to include a lot of samples and keyboards (though the keyboards are sadly shrouded by the guitars and vocals a lot) as the introductory track showed, but when layered in such as on ‘Metastasis Dei’ it really shapes the music beyond the typical Black Metal sound and more of the progressive route that bands such as Funeral Mist have taken. Here the guitar solos are more melodic versus shredding and the slower parts more haunting, but it is the repeated spoken word parts that are sometimes clear, sometimes garbled, that really draw in listeners. The closest Funeral Mist sounding track that Bok goes for is ‘Yonic Decadence’ with the heavy use of children choirs and its rather slow building approach before the riffs come in. While it still eviscerates the ears and has its raw qualities, this track showcases come of the best of what Bok has to offer for the album with its slow, rhythmic march riffs to match to darker tone of the music versus the blindingly fast passages (though they are here too, just a little less). And yet it does seem like less is more.

For those who like ambient groups like Karna, the closing track presents a weird, haunting composure that is comparable to the epics presented by Leviathan at times and like Leviathan sometimes overstays its welcome a bit too much. A rather niche track, it shows the other side of MvG quite well and seems less haphazard than the opening. While not as evenly flowing as the previous track to balance Black Metal with the ambient parts, it does take the listener on a rather epic journey. Overall, while not quite the expected way to end the album, listeners are presented here with a bit of a sub genre mash up that indicates that Bok could go in any direction at any point, and has lots of tasteful points to bring in a lot of listeners whether it be the raw ‘kvlt’ fans or the more mystical, shrouded spacing out fans who don’t always want riffs and spewing vocals in their face. Hopefully this demo is a good indicator of what Black Metal is going to have in the future from Bok: fresh and haunting sounds.

3 / 5 STARS