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A decent change of pace for the Black/Death Metal genre.-
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| Lvcifyre: The Calling Depths |
Black Metal, Death Metal
Blood Harvest Records / Pulverised Records (2011)
May, 2011 / January 3rd, 2012
- Succubi - 3:45
- The Calling Depths - 6:13
- The Faceless One - 4:38
- LCF - 5:16
- Holy Chaos - 5:12
- Death's Magnetic Sleep - 5:50
- Husk of Impurity - 5:28
- The Great Fall - 7:01
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| Review Information |
Release length: 43:22
Review posted on December 23rd, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7.5/10 |
 
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
The Calling Depths (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Dying Light ov God (2009)
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| Review |
Formed in 2007, Lvcifyre has been hard at work to bring new material that doesn't fall under today's more generic categories for their Black/Death Metal style. The London-based group saw their debut EP released through Blood Harvest Records just two years after forming back in 2007. While that release did not earn much attention, the followed it up with their debut full-length, The Calling Depths, in early 2011, which was later picked up for an early 2012 release through Pulverised Records. But again, the group found limited press time for their latest outing. Is this sign of the quality that their less-than-generic material holds?
Well, while the music may not be what you expect to hear from a modern Black/Death Metal group nine times out of ten, the audio is about what you would expect for any group not quite on one of the bigger labels. The whole presentation sounds thick to the point where the best way to sum it up would say it sounds chunky. The guitars have a bit of a rasp to them in distortion, but it's greatly overpowered by the bass and deeper rhythm guitar despite the leads being at a slightly higher level. The drums here are heavily varied, with a mixture of tight snares that also have some loud, booming parts to the kit to offer up an additional bass-driven sound. The kicks have a slight click to them, but they can kind of come through like the tighter snares, causing them to be a bit lost in the mix. Of course the cymbals here ring through loudly with an uncompromising attitude. When it comes to the vocals, the performance is about what you would expect, tackling this element with a growling approach, though favoring more towards the traditional Death Metal guttural then a raspier Black Metal style.
The Calling Depths kicks things off with a very loud, inhuman-sounding scream that welcomes in the pounding Death Metal heavy material. The track's mid-tempo pace offers up a cutthroat atmosphere, while the blast beat fueled Black Metal passages seem to take things into a more chaotic approach. The scream of what is probably meant to be a succubus also appears during the track, and again at the end, though the latter ends up being more feminine and higher pitched with a little more variety to it then the one scream, and that really ends up being one fo the more annoying elements of the song. It's shrieking pitch starts to get repetitive fast and can lead to a headache shortly after the second time you have to hear it. There's also a good amount of shifting from slower to faster paces, but for the most part these are transitioned well enough that you don't feel as though the band is just throwing you in varying directions, causing whiplash. But, either way, these jerking elements in the pace don't really carry over into other songs, and many of the later tracks flow a lot smoother, as well as without the ear-piercing screams.
"The Faceless One" really establishes a darker tone to the album then what already exists. This is thanks to the song's more ritualistic sound. Of course, it does feel a little on the traditional side, but thanks to those booming drums, it feels a little more believable in the ritual sense, and the intensity that the band does wind up bringing in at times really makes the song a lot stronger with plenty of moments where the rhythm can just grab the listener with an infectious brutality. While the previous track "The Calling Depths" and "Succubi" are not bad songs, this is one of the first that will genuinely find you head banging along. The same goes for "LCF." Again, there's a hint of a ritualist sound to the music, but it's largely composed of blast beat drums and guitars. But, the more that this album continues on, the more the music begins to expand, as well as grow on the listener.
"Death's Magnetic Sleep" is easily one of the album's best tracks. The mixture between Black Metal and Death Metal feels a lot more complete here instead of just varying passed brought together through jerky transitions, or just shifting of paces with decent shifts between them. Here, there's a solid flow with plenty of modern Black Metal blast beats while some haunting Death Metal concepts are applied to really create a faster, hard-hitting track that simply feels as though the band had been maturing from the start of the release. "Husk of Impurity" also takes the reins in that sense with another furious, pounding track that stands out above the tracks prior to "Death's Magnetic Sleep." The sheer intensity and brutal sound of this song simply destroys everything in its path and shows the potential that lies in Lvcifyre to take this style and, while using much of what people expect from it, create a bit of a unique experience that will make any listener want to pound their fists along in the air obediently. This does give way to the closing track, another longer song similar to "The Calling Depths."
These tracks also make for a nice standing point for the group when handled right. Much of the material found here is limited to around the five-minute mark, but longer songs like "Death's Magnetic Sleep" and "Husk of Impurity" really show the band at their best. "The Calling Depths" is an early example of this, though some of what pushes it past the six-minute line is introductory material, a dark and ominous sound with a weak, yet clean saying things over it. The track itself feels rather punishing at times, but in the end does feel a little weaker like much of the early material on this compared to the later songs. Either way, the track down flow smoothly from start to finish, and instead of building up, it seems like the band slowly descends down to a slower pace that brings things back to the atmosphere of the introduction to the song. On top of that you also have "The Great Fall" to close out the release, which is also the longest offering on the album. This one finds the band going back to the sound that started things off. There's a good deal of transitions and shifts in speed, but for the most part its around a mid-tempo pace. The drumming here really isn't the most amazing, though it's pretty consistent despite some of the times it slows down in action. But, overall, "The Great Fall" makes for a good track that keeps the listener content from start to finish.
What it all boils down to is a band that really is trying to not fall victim to the stereotypes of the modern Black/Death Metal sound, and for the most part they do a good job. With a solid mixture of second wave and modern Black Metal, with a slightly crushing Death Metal presence that can sometimes become a little haunting, Lvcifyre do a good job at retaining what many fans love about the style, while also expanding on it. The ritual approach to many of the tracks works out well, though some of the transitions or shifting of pace can feel like a stretch at times, and you really feel like the deeper into the album you get, the more the band grows despite stepping backwards at the very end. There's nothing bad here aside the screaching during "Succubi" that can be a bit out of hand for the three time it appears, but overall The Calling Depths does make for a solid, thick, and heavy offering to this style. If you're tired of hearing one Behemoth rip off after another, then Lvcifyre is a band worth checking in on.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Pulverised Records
via Earsplit PR. |
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