Death is June - Clairvoyance : "Chasm Of Immurement"

 

The Polish death metal band storms up from the catacombs with a dense and dark sound. They are more from the Incantation school of riffing, with vocals that are a low, unearthly gurgle. Their drummer is relentless on the opening track. There could stand to be more nuance and finesse, but some like just being bludgeoned in the ears like this. The second song has more groove to it as well as a burly guitar tone that moves with a more Entombed-like muscle. Guitar melodies are also layered over the rumble. When it gains momentum, things retain the drive without running off the rails. 

"Fleshmachine' finds the vocals becoming just an obligatory layer of sound as they speed into the fastest moments we have heard from this band yet. There are more deliberate head-banging moments to contrast with this. They are putting effort into songwriting, but it is not anything that is really captivating me or leaves me with a clear-cut vision of what their unique sonic signature is. It's just your typical cavernous death metal. "Reign of Silence' varies the tempos a bit and has a cool riff that is from more of an older Entombed school of death metal, but does not take any risks. 

"Blood Divine" starts off this with a blitz of blast beats, before picking up the flurry of double bass to chase it with, while everyone else goes to pound town in varied degrees. A storming blur of sound could best describe their collective efforts here. Impressive in terms of heaviness, but not memorable in terms of songwriting. They use every last ounce of speed they have going into "Monument to Dread". The wailing of the guitar solo layered atop it does not break things up enough, and it begins to bore me. They shift the speeds to break it up more than some of the previous songs. Two minutes in, they drop things down to a more deliberate groove that works better than the speed fest for sure. I will give it an 8, as the execution is there and they have a cool sound, think they need to bring in more dynamics to write great songs, but what they are doing works for where they are as a band.Out on Carbonized Records July 18th.  

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