This French blackened death metal band has failed to cross my radar on their previous three albums which span over a decade, with their last effort, ‘Ardens Fvror’, making waves during 2019. There is something incalculably menacing and hideous about their latest album, songs that reek of ghoulish atmosphere with a sense of unerring speed throughout.
Opener ‘Perdition Temple’ has a typical intro sequence to lead into the tracks expected explosion of speed which comes with a pulverising assault, nihilistic in nature that amplifies the black metal credentials on offer on all the songs. The causticity of the guitar sound only adds to the pernicious approach as ‘Sovereign Wrath’ continues the barrage with no signs of easing up, or injecting any calmness. The blackened edge to the riffing only ensures the songs have a piercing assault as the plunge into an ambient phase was unexpected but adds depth and texture to the song.
The fade-in to ‘Golden Fragments’ allows the song to gather intensity before the gnarly blasted speed and riff that ensues. Likewise, with ‘Cascades Of Epiphanies’ where the blast beat eruption is impacting and rancidly executed as here we get an old school death metal bombardment. There is a freneticism too, as the guitar work chops and changes smoothly before the black metal hooks claw into the track. ‘Stygian Hexahedron’ really caught my ear, due to its unerring wrath that borders deathgrind at times, allowing a crusty riff to insert itself.
The album ends with the monster ‘Putrid Fluids’, a ten-minute epic that captures and distils all that preceded it into one gargantuan composition. The semi-acoustic build-up was anticipated as the riff enters the fray after a couple of minutes, offering copious riff changes, which have some repetition but when the riffs are this good, you really want to hear them again. Intense and palpably eerie with a dissonant edge the song twists and contorts throughout its duration, especially when the pace nosedives for a more menacing approach. As the song progresses, you feel its intensity reaching a crescendo before it returns to an ambient outro sequence.
Saturated in nuanced violence, this album wreaks havoc with it punishing and undeterred hostility.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
Leave a Reply