Siculicidium - A rothadó virágok színüket vesztik & Keringők (Valses) (2012)

[Since these are both rather short releases I'll review them as one]

Siculicidium was a mass murder committed against Székelys (ethnic subgroup of the Hungarian nation) by the Habsburg army in 1764, under Maria Theresa.

The band Siculicidium hails from Harghita, Romania and has been active since 2003 when they debuted with the demo, 'Transylvanian Resistance.' A split and EP followed, culminating towards the full-length, 'Utolsó vágta az Univerzumban' in '09. The bands most recent work is the subject of this review, their new EP, 'A rothadó virágok színüket vesztik" and the 7" that followed, 'Keringők (Valses).'

'Zuhanás' opens the EP up on a grim and otherworldly sort of vibe - the song is a total funeral dirge with raspy spoken vocals, dark haunting keys, a repetitive, but sinister riff and loud clanking percussion that works out quite well. 'Holnap majd felgyújtom az erdőt' does however turn over to a different sound, something more akin to Hellhammer and other early pioneering black metal acts, while 'Várnak a varjak' is just a short acoustic piece, but at least a very pleasing one. 'Ökörtej' reverts back to the opening songs style as its cold, grim and hypnotic in its delivery, though perhaps just slightly too long in length to really be overly enjoyable. The following two songs are rehearsals with both showing something of a black punk sound, 'A sajnálat utolsó lehelete (Taxidermia)' is quite a bit more raw in tone though, and the vocals are so upfront that it just becomes obnoxious after a few minutes. The final song, 'Bakarasznyi mumus' is another short piece of mostly discordant guitar and annoying growling.

Opening with 'Valse Triste,' this 7" right away shows off a more epic side to Siculicidium with chanting sort of raspy vocals intermingled with a repetitive riff and tribal-ish percussion, it continues onwards steadily for over three minutes before a more drony sort of guitar riff and light keys appear dragging the song out to about five minutes. 'Valse Ende' is more straight forward, with a slow guitar riff, light percussion, bass presence and the Attila Csihar-ish vocal delivery, it eventually increases in speed just to once again return to its slower pace in the end.

Considering I never heard the bands full-length I think a lot of what's going on here is somewhat foreign to me, because Siculicidium does sort of have their own thing going, but its hard to get the real feel for it amongst just a few songs, some of which are probably just left overs. If you did however hear and enjoy the bands debut then you can pick and choose your need to hear these newer recordings. If nothing else, just wait for the next full-length album.