Normally I wouldn’t bother reviewing a “best of” for this site, but when that best of is a band’s first full-length debut, I can make an exception. French black metal warlords Inkisitor haven’t released an album yet; the tracks here are drawn from previous EPs, splits, and live recordings. We get six originals, and a live rendition of Darkthrone’s classic, Under a Funeral Moon.

“Raw” can mean many things when applied to black metal production, from painful lacerating screams that bludgeon your ears with an industrial-strength sanding machine a la Nattens Madrigal, to a distant tremolo whirr that sounds like it’s emanating from underneath a nearby tectonic plate (see certain LLN bands). As a matter of fact, the slightly faded out rumble presented by Inkisitor, which sounds like a band jamming in a garage when you’re just on the other side of the door, reminded me momentarily of the latter. That is, until I actual put on some Brenoritzvrezorkre and realised that by comparison this sounds like sodding Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk.

This is actually impressively proactive and brutal black metal. Some of the riffs really force themselves into your consciousness, grabbing you by the collar, pressing their face to yours, and issuing spit-flecked bellows in their guttural, Behexen-like language. It’s twitchy and irritable music. Spear of the Tyrant never quite sounds like it is comfortable in itself, with minimalist blasting not quite bonding with the guitar-driven hints of a lead line, as if they are subscribing to slightly different time feels. This is part of the appeal.

Slightly older material, such as Antitheos and Blazing Phoenix is correspondingly even grimier, perhaps bringing us close to LLN territory, soundwise. The former, in particular, judders along with one of the most hideous rattling bass drum tones you could ever wish not to hear. The rapidity of its double-kicking at times masks the much slower-shifting and minimalist nature of the actual harmonic flow, as with albums such as Transylvanian Hunger, but this is less icily hypnotic, and more belchingly primitive.

All in all, a pleasingly ugly compilation of tracks that turns its flaws into beneficial ugliness. Inkisitor are not a standout band, but amongst the bloodthirsty black metal horde, they can certainly take their filthy place.