I like the dissonance and mood this album opens with. This is atmospheric death metal being done right, is my first thought as I am only halfway into the opening song. The low gurgle of the growled mixed back into the buzz of guitar, might be the one element that hampers them as I can foresee this creating a uniformity of sound. The second song is produced the same but has more of a standard death metal aggression to the song. This is another band where thematically there is supposed to be a Lovecraftian arch to the lyrics, but they are growled in such a way you cannot understand any of them, so it makes the whole thing a moot point.
There is more of a black metal throb to "the Devourer of Eons..." This captures a more fitting darkness for a band trying to capture the sound of ancient cosmic evil. When the vocals come in three minutes into the song things return to a more death metal feel. There is a moment of dissonant ambiance before things come back roaring out of the abyss in a more aggressive attack upon your ears. "Whispering the Mantra of Death" finds the drums hammering with the double bass, but the guitar's laying back into the more hypnotic pulse. Things are more angular and dissonant. Then what your average death metal band would do even ones like Ulcerate. One thing that is nice about this band is how they are not hammering you at full speed ahead the entire time. This allows for darker moods to flourish.
'the Colossal Deformed..." opens with more pummeling drums before relaxing into a better sonic space. When the guitars look back there is almost more of a dark rock vibe, Here the growled vocals are effective as they offset that and keep things heavier. Thought midway into the song it feels more like it is falling into being more of a sound than a song. "Dissolution of the Firmament" is oppressively in it's heaviness though largely balanced by the ambiance, they save the most crushing moments for the end as the last song has some riffs that pound your god damn head in. I have been reviewing a lot of punishingly heavy shit lately and this manages to stand out enough to earn an 8.5. It drops March 17th on Debemur Morti Productions.
No comments:
Post a Comment