Clearly the symphonic blackened deathcore well has not yet run dry. Just a year after Drown in Sulphur released their second album Dark Secrets of the Soul, they follow it up with a masterpiece of Vengeance! In between the releases of the two albums, the band left Scarlet Records, hence the independent release of Vengeance. Some of the most creative bands are the unsigned ones like Mechina and Shadow of Intent, so I sense great development for Drown in Sulphur in their new offering.

I checked out Dark Secrets of the Soul when it was first released, but I wasn't heavily into epic deathcore at the time apart from Lorna Shore. Drown in Sulphur really lives up to their new album's name. No emotional ballads, just ultra-heavy deathcore bangers with melody from the riffing and background orchestral synths.

"Underworld" is an ominous intro with narration. Then we have the memorable "Faithless", one of my favorite tracks in the entire album. It strikes from practically everywhere, and you'll want more of that epic deathcore action. The title track is quite vengeful, proving that The Revolution clan has more than just the melody of For the Fallen Dreams and Trivium. You can hear some soloing in "Seed of Hate" to please any metalhead, even the purists.

Next song "Silence" is another well-developed standout, striking with more of those epic melodies and a perfectly brutal breakdown. Crossing over into melodic metalcore territory is "Scarlet Rain", having more of that soloing and even some glistening clean singing. I enjoy when bands break through the deathcore boundaries to show that the genre isn't just brutal all the time. Yet another favorite! Then "Veil of Deception" starts off with some acoustic-ish guitar that's almost like Amorphis' "My Kantele" then blasts off into more of Lorna Shore's brand of epic deathcore with some slight technicality from Coroner.

Speeding things up is the incredible "Absentia", only slowing down at the end for one of the darkest breakdowns of the year. Perhaps my favorite here! Next up, "Morningstar" combines deathcore brutality with some dark melody from Insomnium and even Powerwolf. "Inferno" has another one of the most intense breakdowns to end this haunting highlight and, of course, this album.

Vengeance is one of the heaviest, most vengeful albums I've heard so far this year. I don't know if it will be surpassed by Lorna Shore upcoming album, but we'll see. Greatly recommended to all fans of deathcore, specifically fans of the epic kind!

Favorites: "Faithless", "Silence", "Scarlet Rain", "Absentia", "Inferno"

I already expressed my love for 2018's The Incubus of Karma by Mournful Congregation in my earlier review on Metal Academy, so it was with a hopeful spring in my step that I ventured into this month’s feature release. It is fair to say that my previous positive experience was instantly replicated as I started to listen to The Exuviae of Gods: Part II. This is instantly recognizable as funeral doom, of course. However, there’s a shrouded light implicit in the songs of Mournful Congregation that at first glance was unexpected the last time around and I am pleased to say is still present now. All the oppressive, crushing elements are lined up here on this macabre and morose parade. The deathly plod you would expect from a funeral doom release continues to trudge at an agonisingly slow pace towards the inevitable end. Still, I cannot shake that flicker of sharp light that Is burning at the centre of all that murk.

There is an odd sense of comfort that I take from good funeral doom, and this release has made for great bedtime listening to drag me off into the land of nod on a few occasions now. Whilst it is a little too short to truly encapsulate many of the great things that I heard in 2018’s offering, in a way that is okay as there is still a distinct sense of fulfilment from the thirty-nine minutes that the three songs run over. The harrowing and punishing repetition never become arduous or boring, indeed it seems to help tracks grow in stature as it repeats. I believe this is successful because once again Mournful Congregation display a real penchant for songwriting of the highest quality. Just as with my comment on The Incubus of Karma, The Exuviae of Gods: Part II continues to grow those strong roots of songwriting prowess. These tacks aren’t just long, they are nurtured, they are grown, cultivated into their optimal form.

The melancholic melodies of the guitar on ‘The Forbidden Abysm’ genuinely moved me to the point of welling up tears in my eyes. It is such a sudden burst of despondency that it caught my completely off-guard. There is a limitless patience to how the drums are played on this track. It would have been easy to lose them in the mix against the backdrop of the relentless wall of riffs and dense atmospheres present here, yet there is no loss of power to the work Tim Call puts in. Some of the picked string work is exquisite, with the intro to the final track 'The Paling Crest' being of note. It is this sense of pacing and build that keeps the release interesting for the whole duration. There is little in the way of criticism, other than to say it needs perhaps a little more bite to really keep things entertaining. However, once again, Mournful Congregation cement themselves as true masters of funeral doom, with a knack for songwriting that few I have experienced can touch. My only regret is not having listened to Part I.

I have always loved the early works of Carcass, with Symphonies of Sickness being my favourite, sitting as it does in a sweet spot between the grind of the debut and the more conventional death metal approach of Necroticism. However, I have never been much of a fan of Heartwork. In truth I have only heard it a couple of times and not in a while, so I am going to go into it once more with a clean slate.

Well, initial (new) impressions are that Heartwork is more brutal than I remember it being. Sure, Carcass introduced more melody into their death metal, but whereas previously that had overshadowed the album for me, it is now abundantly clear that the melodic aspect is relative and Carcass being Carcass this still has the ability to give you a damn good beating round the head, albeit in a more refined and elegant manner!

One big change on Heartwork is that vocal duties are solely performed by Jeff Walker. Although this gives the album a greater consistency of sound, I actually miss the three vocalists approach, it providing some interesting contrasts. I guess that as the songs themselves varied more here than previously the band felt the use of several different vocal styles may become a bit too much. The songwriting has obviously become a bit more refined, but guitarists Steer and Amott can still summon powerful riffs, even without the blastbeats and searing tempos of yesteryear. The soloing is one of the areas where Heartwork really grabs my attention with both guitarists absolutely nailing it and shredding the hell out of it, sounding more like Tipton and Downing or Smith and Murray than King and Hanneman. Ken Owen is on fine form behind the kit and without having to provide a constant stream of blastbeats he is allowed to exhibit a more creative approach to his timekeeping duties. That Heartwork sounds so tightly performed whilst being more open and expansive than previous Carcass releases is testament to the development of the band and their technical expertise.

In summary, I have got to admit to having been wrong about Heartwork all these years. OK, so Symphonies of Sickness still tops my list of Carcass releases, but this is an accomplished piece of work indeed and is heading towards becoming one of my favourite melodic death metal releases. That an album can still sound so damn heavy and brutal whilst also being melodic and refined is a brilliant musical trick and a fantastic indictment of all four members' musical abilities. I have rarely been happier to say "I was wrong".

Where does black metal stop? I mean just how much more black metal needs to be reproduced in the old school means and sound before the world eventually loses interest and we of the black kvlt retire to our holes and listen to A Blaze in the Northern Sky, In the Nightside Eclipse or De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas for the rest of our days? I jest of course. I have no desire to see the culmination of one of the most important metal movements of my lifetime at any point soon. However, even the most devoted corpse paint wearer must concede that there is a lot of black metal out there, and that a lot of it sounds the same. What is refreshing, even if only now and again is when we get to hear some slight deviance into a new angle, or a new direction. A combination of styles that does not sully the conventional grimoire of black metal yet does offer some enticement or enrichment of the style beyond tremolo riffs and ghastly vocals.

Enter Warmoon Lord. Now do not get me wrong, you can instantly draw any number of influences on Warmoon Lord’s sound with just a few listens to Sacrosanct Demonopathy. Whether it is the symphonia of Emperor, the scathing attack of Behexen or the melodic trappings of Sargeist, it is all pretty much worn on the sleeves of Janne and Juuso. But what is also obvious, even from the opening instrumental ‘Warpoems & Tragedies’, is that there are nods to the wider heavy metal world. That opening track for example reminds me a lot of Iron Maiden. Seemingly adept in equal amounts with both riffs and keys, the album chimes and chops at the listener. Those galloping riffs again recall the NWOBHM/trad metal plod of years gone by whilst the keys add the own lavishing of majesty and grandeur, breeding a sense of arrogance across the very confident pacing of the tracks.

The ghastly rasps of Juuso firmly keeps the mindset in the black metal camp though. The vocals have a delirious tone to them, bordering on howls at times which work well in contrast with the slower, more atmospheric moments also. Tracks such as ‘A Hungering Yoke’ explore the full gamut of Warmoon Lord’s armory, deploying atmospheric keys, frantic riffing, rhythmic riffing and icy cold vocals across its mere five-minute run time. Taken as a whole experience, Sacrosanct Demonopathy is quite a positive sounding black metal record. Not blue skies and rolling green fields by any means. No, I look at the artwork for the previous release from the duo (Battlespells) and I get the sense of the smug pleasure that army of evil knights as they march away from the burning buildings, past a river turned red with blood. In short Sacrosanct Demonopathy feels good in the sense that you have just fucked shit up in an epic way, defeated an enemy or conquered a long-standing civilisation. As a record, it carries a crude sense of achievement.

I normally do not like too much symphonic elements to my metal, but the balance struck here between the instrumentation (except for the drums which do get a bit lost at times) makes for a rewarding experience. Tracks such ‘Uncreation’s Dragon’ are simply to well put together to argue with, the keyboards only grow the epic nature of the music from my standpoint. This is going to be high on my year end list I sense. The drums are the only let down for me in what is an otherwise great listening experience.

The derision that meets most Behemoth releases always amuses me. I grant you that The Satanist was the pinnacle of the bands output and that all albums since have been a pale reflection of what the band are truly capable of achieving. The “celebrity” status of Nergal seems to be a bone of contention in the main though. How much of this is him genuinely seeking the attention or just the knee-jerk reactions of a pious set of groups picking easy targets are not subjects I am well enough read up on to be able to comment on (I also don’t care that much in all honesty). The thing that annoys me the most about Behemoth is their one-dimensional, steadfast refusal to write songs about anything other than their hatred of God, or rather their inability to do so with any degree of maturity. Calling their latest record “The Shit Ov God” pissed me off before I heard even one note of it. I am sure that I can safely speak for much of the metal loving community when I say that we fucking get it now. You don’t go to church on Sundays and the chances of you making positive use of any bibles in your hotel rooms when on tour is absolutely zero.

The title track is every bit as grating as I thought it would be. It is like listening to Deicide repeatedly in the 90’s but you can understand all the lyrics, (Deicide were great in the 90’s but death metal’s incoherent vocals made them even more tolerable to me). Where Behemoth fails to register with me is in their insistence that this is their one true path, and that we all want to hear it. They can still write monstrous, blackened death metal as it happens and there are some moments on here that do remind me of why I became so enamored with The Satanist. However, it is all so juvenile in terms of the vocals and lyrical content that I cannot enjoy most of the album.

I guess fans of the band will be thrilled that they have released an album that is not a live album, let alone be excited by the blatant blasphemous provocation that again takes hold of the record from the start. But here’s a thought Behemoth, focus less on the blasphemous rhetoric and overly theatrical performances and concentrate more on delivering the music for a change. There are still good ideas here, but they are too hard to find if one of my ears is already threatening industrial action and the other is in a corridor conversation with the union rep. Sporadic moments of quality are not enough to save a thirty-seven-minute record that is just spewing little more than immaturity in gallons.