Not everybody will that the patience to sit through this, as the sometimes tribal sometimes martial drumming pace makes no haste, but the savoury fruit at the end of it is worth it. Unnerving at all times, the blackened death-doom magic works immensely well as the ritualistic ambience encompassing the bludgeoning drumming and dry tremolo guitars pummels you into the abyss. Irkallian Oracle – ‘Apollyon’ Apollyon, as rightfully named, is the beast that takes you down a slow lonely pathway to death.The highlight of the album is surely the intricacies hidden that reveal themselves after multiple listens. The old-school tech death bass is audible, and some of the clean guitars reminds me of early Cynic. Zealotry adds a bit more of atmosphere for The Last Witness, and it clearly gives a different personality to the band.
Absolutely filthy production adds to the careless attitude of the album in general. Plenty of face-melting riffs, savage vocals that resemble inhumane outcries and drumming and speed that packs a punch all together form the primary features of the album. Perennial Void Traverse is an album that Autopsy would write if they took the Obliteration stylized OSDM revival technique. Reptilian – ‘Perennial Void Traverse’ Reptilian’s debut album is a classic murky rotten Norwegian death metal affair.Aum have created an interesting premise here and is to be followed into whatever they would create next. Aum explores Vajrayana Buddhism (and maybe Shaivism since they are rooted in the same Tantra) as a topic of interest, and the aesthetic is successfully developed because of the cavernous nature of the death metal punctuated by throat chanting mantras. Depraved riffs and dreary vocals lay over some solid drumming whether it’s the doomy sections of the galloping war metal parts. Aum – ‘Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum’ Aum plays black/death metal that is somewhere between raw and cavernous, something like a rawer Grave Miasma.This year has seen some very good death metal releases, and following are my favourites.
Death metal has seen quite a facelift in the recent years after the slump of the early 2000s, and a lot of bands have finally got hold of the perfect way of staying murky while having a clear production.