Leviathan – “True Traitor, True Whore” – [Profound Lore]

In Jan 2011, Jef ‘Wrest’ Whitehead, sole member of SF-based Black Metal band Leviathan, was arrested when his then-girlfriend claimed he had beaten her unconscious and raped her with tattoo tools. Of 38 charges filed against him, he was eventually convicted on one count: aggravated domestic battery, for which he is serving two years’ probation, and of which he still maintains his innocence. The crimes he was accused of are horrific. On the other hand, his accuser apparently had a long history of similarly dubious charges against previous partners. Only Whitehead and this woman know what, if anything, actually took place that night. Whether you have the stomach for this 2011 album explicitly inspired by Whitehead’s version of events, however, is up to you. What if I told you it was hauntingly good? The painfully titled ‘True Traitor, True Whore’ (produced by buddy Sanford Parker of Buried at Sea) is a blacker-than-black trawl through the deepest horrors of sexuality, codependence and self-hate. To call it misogynistic is either an understatement or inaccurate, depending on one’s opinion: this hatred is not for the female sex, not even really for a specific woman: it’s for all humans and the pathetically egotistical ways in which we become enthralled with one other, and the abject psychic slavery that results. It’s about fear of the body itself and its power over the ‘soul,’ and it’s really quite a crushing listen. The atmosphere of his other project Lurker of Chalice is here, along with plenty of Deathspell Omega riffage, and real drums instead of pads for the first time in the history of the project– but that being said most of the time THIS IS NOT BLACK METAL. It’s a beautiful mess of harshness and ambience, fast and slow, music and noise: My Bloody Valentine one moment and Gorgoroth the next, Voivod sometimes, Lustmord, Christian Death, Menace Ruine, Weakling… mostly though it sounds like Leviathan. Monster or victim? Listen and decide for yourself.