Christ Inversion renewed
Christ Inversion
Christ Inversion
(Housecore)
Word of a Phil Anselmo black metal band might be news to some, but those who keep close tabs on the former Pantera/current Down frontman and his myriad sideprojects know Christ Inversion is actually an early ’90s experiment just now sincerely seeing the light of the day. Or maybe the black of the night?
To be honest, we’re confused as shit as to what exactly Christ Inversion is. Wikipedia says it’s the group’s second demo, 13th Century Luciferian Rites (1995), yet a May post on the group’s Myspace site claims the self-titled album is actually Christ Inversion’s first demo, Obey The Will Of Hell. Either way, you can’t accuse Anselmo of jumping on the burgeoning USBM bandwagon, because this stuff was done more than a decade ago and Christ Inversion has done little to nothing since.
Here’s the short of it: if black metal was born in New Orleans instead of Norway, this is what the entire genre would sound like: sludgier, slower, doomier, but no less blasphemous (the album opens with the jumbled movie clips of “Crucifucking The Possessed,” a nice touch if you ask us). Along with Down keyboardist Ross Karpelman, Anselmo wrote all the music, and it’s obvious. Christ Inversion sounds like the Down riffs Anselmo brings into rehearsal before before Kirk Windstein and Pepper Keenan spruce ’em up. That’s not a bad thing because Anselmo’s primal, but groove-based guitar playing is exactly what his corpsepainted vocalist (Wayne Fabra) needs for his blood-drinking, children-burning, Lucifer-loving, raped-by-a-succubus lyrics.
Too bad Phil didn’t put the same effort into this than he did the awful Superjoint Ritual.
— Trevor Fisher
