Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape (Dark Descent Records. 2017).
Through the miasma of the graveyard wanders robed figures not of this world. The stench of Death permeates the night, choking all life as the summoning of Darkness begins. This is the vista painted by the putrid, Incantation worship of Phrenelith as you feel yourself dissolving into the Stygian depths whilst listening to the debut album. Right from the start, the feeling of choking blackness permeates every note of Conquering Divinity, which feels as if it was exhumed from an ancient tomb. There is a fantastic re-recording of the demo song Eradicated, that is as crushing as ever. The suffocating sense of doom and desolation flow forth and drown you in darkness. A belter of a song followed perfectly by the instrumental title track, Desolate Endscape, that possesses all the menace that one expects from a band like Phrenelith, in some ways feeling like the despair in face of an incomprehensible fate. The powerful and furious riffs bludgeon your skull before giving way to a sinister and unsettling acoustic passage, which sounds bewitched and encapsulates a sense of unease and morbidity that pervades the song. It is imbued with nihilism and gloom, and rounds off the song fantastically well, and sets the scene for the upcoming onslaught of evil in Crawling Shadows Slithering Tongues. As the rest of the album ravages your mind and soul, you will have no choice but to surrender yourself to the all-consuming fury of Hell. The production is fantastic, with all instruments being balanced perfectly for the music. The guitar tone is raw and absolutely sickening, sounding like the audial embodiment of the toxic brew of the grave. It adds so much to the morbid atmosphere of the album. David Torturdød’s vocals sound absolutely inhuman, more like the demonic growls of some faceless monstrosity than a man. This album highlights the macabre mastery of Death Metal that David Torturdød possesses, as it is a sublime work of evil that will capture your mind and lead you through realms of infernal beings and Chthonic rituals. A must for all fans of Incantation and macabre, old-school Death Metal.
8.75/10.
SADISTIC SCREAMS 