This quartet out of Philly have taken a considerable amount of time perfecting their craft as this, their debut full-length comes a full five years after the ‘Pulsing Dark Absorptions’ of its previous EP. With no less than three members of epic doomers Crypt Sermon in their ranks perhaps they wanted to play something a bit on the faster side and if that’s the case they have certainly succeeded here with an absolute caustic sermon of black, deathly thrash which after the stirring intro of ‘Emanations’ plummets the listener straight down to the sulphurous pits of hell.

Constructing this mighty devilment via ‘The Architect and the Monument’ the next 35 minutes or so are a volatile, tumbling morass of thorny riffs, tumbling blasts and craggy snarls that at first gallop along with a bit of a Watainish stink and fervour. It’s not all standard black metal here though despite Edward Gonet’s, ex Infernal Stronghold scabrous vocals, there’s plenty of metallic devastation via flailing leads to keep everyone happy as well as Venomous black thrash through numbers like ‘Arena At Dis.’ It’s a bit of a blur on the first few listens, there’s little relenting in pace and things fly by leaving you dizzy. They finally temper the velocity and hit a thumping groove on fourth number ‘Passion Under The Hammer’ hitting the anvil with leaden weight and fury as well as summoning spells via an instrumental passage of dark mystery and allowing the listener to finally grab a much-needed breath.

Pure bullet-belt laden black thrash with speed metal combines in the absolute furious assault of ‘Loosen The Tongue Of The Dead.’ It’s a total banger, no mercy given and it must be absolutely lethal live especially when some summoning chanting is utilised opening the floodgates for demonic invasion. The album’s a grower essentially, after knocking you flat at first, the more macabre and orthodox Satanic overtures in the whirling maelstrom of the music begin to shimmer through and the final lengthier track ‘Luciferian Return’ does the admirable job of both hitting like a vengeful whirlwind and being full of arcane caverns to explore. There’s grit, determination and more than a little black magic here so that sheer will has paid off. Davea’s debut is definitely worthy of banging your head to the devil to.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

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