The split returns fiercer and more focused, pushing Kommodus and Koreltsak into harsher, sharper territory on their most ambitious black metal collaboration yet.
SURPASSING their 2023 split album, Kommodus and Koreltsak’s Meridians of Sacrifice II (MOSII) is a metamorphosis of both Australian and American projects, with the album seeing the bands thread the needle in delivering an even sharper, searing barrage of songs that fortify their distinct foothold in the realm of black metal.
A continuation of what both forces introduced two years ago, MOSII has Kommodus’ Lepidus Plague and Koreltsak P.T.S. take their self-experimentation to greater heights. Neither projects, particularly Kommodus, have ever been comfortable with complacency, but MOSII is a clear result of both creative figures pushing themselves to their (current) absolute limits.
The results are clear: Kommodus’ side maintains the band’s emblematic ferocity, with tracks like Elegy for a Paladin Star and Osgiliath Seasons being an even more heated theatre of war between raw black metal, hardcore and splashes of weird synthesisers and instruments.
On the American side of MOSII, Koreltsak draws from his scabbard songs like Cracks in the Blade Howl from the Darkness and To Holy Ground, melding raw black metal with Japanese motifs better than the project has done previously.
Like the drums on The Crossroad of Corpses, the session collaborators that contributed to both sides of the split are part of Kommodus and Koreltsak’s array of sonic electric, electronic and acoustic arsenal that they deploy great effect, mirroring the prowess of Roman and Japanese warriors and commanders of old.
The split album also demonstrates why Kommodus nor Koreltsak may never perform live. Beyond the feverish anonymity both musicians have armoured their identities around, it would be a monumental task attempting to bring the full breadth of their music into a live music setting.
If 2023’s Meridians of Sacrifice were rough chunks of steel of promising quality in the early stages of being forged into swords, Meridians of Sacrifice II is the culmination of two distinct blades fully forged, ready to be drawn and used to unfurl flesh from bone.
