This week was long and dreary and I have, for the first time, a triple review for you! This week's review will span from raw as hell U.S. black metal to some adversarial and cavernous death metal from Brazil, and back again to the U.S. for some dark, ambient dungeon synth to cap it off!
Shades of Vrsaj'kett - Perishing Embers of a Funeral Pyre (2021)
To put it obnoxiously simple, this demo from Shades of Vrsaj'kett sounds like a cross between very early Gorgoroth (like A Sorcery Written in Blood type of early) and Transylvanian Hunger era Darkthrone, with just a dash of the synth-forward melodies you'd hear from a Lamp of Murmuur or Quest Master record. What I mean by this is that this demo is intensely raw, lo-fi, and buried in soft noise. Once your ears adjust to this record's harsh (and rather quiet) production, you're introduced to some very satisfying, well written and executed black metal. The vocals bring that throat-shredding approach that I said earlier reminds me of early Gorgoroth and the instrumentation sticks to a steady mid-to-fast ranged pace that switches between some typical moments of fast high-hat blast-beats to head bobbing grooves and occult, wintery rhythms. The snare drum brings a satisfying compressed pop that just barely rises to the surface of the mix, while the cymbals crash around, like scraping blades against your ears. Track 3 has an insanely intriguing moment where the dirty grumble of a bass guitar is singled out, and it is the loudest thing you hear in the entire demo, it gets right in your face and proves that this quiet, raw production is completely intentional. That instance of the bass guitar gives you a little bit of sunlight to remind the listener of just how blinding the darkness really is as you're sucked back into the raw production and the immediate difference is a total shock, your ears have to readjust themselves completely. This demo is a really great listen, steeped in lo-fi noise and an occult, ritualistic atmosphere that is accompanied by the really awesome and surreal artwork, it's a complete package, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't already a fan of raw black metal. The album was released through Murder on Ponce with a limited run of cassettes (that has unfortunately sold out since...), but the album is available on bandcamp, and its "name your price" so what do you have to lose? Although I always feel you should toss artists a few dollars if you can when they put the music up for free like that. This demo is promising and I'm very excited for what Shades of Vrsaj'kett have in store for the future.
Artist: Shades of Vrsaj'kett
Album: Perishing Embers of a Funeral Pyre
Label: Murder on Ponce
Rating: 6/10
Fossilization - He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten (2021)
Fossilization brings you a devastating, gloomy, cavernous offering of death metal that sometimes dips its toes into some death/doom territory. This is no slog of a record though, as it will immediately pick up the pace into a flurry of blast-beats, and the guitars have this droning, dismal, almost prog-tinged sound to them that remind me very much of some of the faster moments on a Primitive Man record. However, this album feels very reminiscent of Ossuarium with their overall mid-tempo, low-end, bruiting style of death metal. At all times while listening to this record, you feel like you're being crushed under the weight of the world, and when the vocals come in throughout the record (they are a bit minimal), they are the star of the show. The vocal performance is top notch, the vocals are usually in the mid-to-low range with the occasional gravelly high vocal that is just *chef's kiss. While the guitars are doing their sludgy, doom metal/drone style riffing, the bass (yes you can hear the bass and its fantastic) is usually providing a contrasting, yet complimenting, melody underneath everything that truly holds the album together, the song Caronte is a great example of this. The first three tracks stick to the similar slower death/doom style that all stay at least 5 minutes or longer, but then track 4, the title track, punches you in the face, immediately throwing you into a whirlwind of discordant riffs and blast-beats, it completely takes you by surprise and it kicks ass. The production is top-tier for a debut record, every element is present in the mix and everything sounds so mature and calculated, my only complaint about the album is that it's only 25 minutes long. I fully believe that this release, however, will bring Fossilization into the greater discussion of modern death metal in the near future. The album was released through Everlasting Spew Records and they currently have a release of cassettes available through Transylvanian Tapes and both the digital version and the cassette will be well worth the money.
Artist: Fossilization
Album: He Whose Name was Long Forgotten
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Rating: 7.5/10
Wallachian Cobwebs - Night Sobbed a Potion Diseased (2021)
To close this first Triple Feature review, we have Wallachian Cobwebs, a Dark Ambient, Dungeon Synth project that only has one previous release from back in 2019, Hearken to the Moon Whisper. I'm very new to the realm of Dungeon Synth, and I wasn't familiar with this project going into it but... just... wow! Even if you've never listened to Dungeon Synth before, if you're a fan of immersing yourself in soundtracks from tv, film, video games, etc, I would highly suggest listening to this record. The album is dense with a gothic, moody, atmosphere that feels like it should be accompanying a black and white silent horror film. There is a diverse range of sounds, instrumentation, and audio samples that gives the feeling of sitting before the magnificent silver screen, not a moment is lacking or empty, even the quiet moments have subtle sounds working in the background to keep you engaged and thinking. This record, on the surface, may seem like a depressing listen, but once you immerse yourself in it, you will find a broad, complex array of emotions displayed through sound alone. Fear, isolation, curiosity, hope, confusion, enlightenment, naiveté, failure, the album's dense orchestration carries so much weight with it and you can feel every ounce of intention and hard work that went into this album. Through the occasional use of some contextual audio clips, the listener is given a very vague semblance of a narrative, something akin to Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and it is purely up to the listener to interpret the narrative themselves, but it is there nonetheless, a world trapped between the medieval and the beginnings of modernity, electricity, and complexity. Night Sobbed a Potion Diseased is a fantastic, theatrical, and emotional ride that enwraps you in its sound from start to finish, and I recommend it 100%.
Artist: Wallachian Cobwebs
Album: Night Sobbed a Potion Diseased
Label: Independent
Rating: 9/10