No Longer Silent

The word ‘’underrated’’ has been throw around many times but out of the few albums that I really like, I really believe No Longer Silent falls in that category. Now I remember Ceremomium’s debut as a boring piece of deathly doom where there just isn’t much going on, but here everything changed. This album sounds vivid, colorful and most importantly, a lot more exciting in the guitar department.

On this album, Ceremonium could seriously hit a nerve if you’re in the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) mood. Indeed, the guitar work is very expressive and the main strength of this album; no clichés such as odd female vocals or silly keys are present here. Stylistically, the band avoids any obvious throwbacks to the earlier (once) giants of the doom/death style as well. Vaguely this recalls the Autopsy-gets-abducted-by-aliens approach of death metal era Darkthrone combined with the doom-y riff-salad method of Runemagick’s early 00’s outputs (and there’s even a Darkthrone cover here, more on that later) more so than anything else. Riffs aren’t just crawling on the floor in a sluggish pace (even if they surely can, see ‘’Pillars of Wisdom'' which is the band's murkiest creation) but when things speed up and float around in semi-progressive manner, it’s more of Soulside Journey without the cold, soulless aura floating around that appeared on that album.

Of course none of this would matter if Ceremonium had no idea about writing and connecting riffs together, but the band sounds really focused on this album. Fluently the band unleashes both firm midpaced riffs, evocative tremolos and everything in between. Just behold how the title track relies on that furious, yet triumphant tremolo riff for a while, or how ‘’Forever Enthroned’’ rapidly changes from a tensed piece of work into something eerie and dramatic without any pretense to it, before it speeds the hell up again. Yet my pick for the best tune on here has to be ‘’Delusions of Grandeur’’ – the second longest track on here and it’s as inspiring as the other material. The faster bits appear to be grandiose and forceful while during the slower parts are a lot more unsettling and those hopeless guitar lines at the end are the cherry on the cake – the closest to the early Darkthrone comparison I made earlier; as if a young Greg Macintosh was jamming with Fenriz and Nocturno Culto.

Literally the only complaint I have is that Darkthrone cover – now I like the song and it’s faithful to the original but that’s exactly the problem - it doesn’t really add anything to the album. Still, there’s nothing else I’d have changed about this album if I could. The vocals are of ordinary quality; thick growls get switched up with blackened shrieks. It works, as they allow the guitars to shine a lot more - none of that ‘’cavernous belly monster growling so loud you can’t hear the guitars even’’ crap here. It sounds as if each instrument resonates next to each other, instead of being thrown on top of each other.

I can only imagine what Ceremonium would have come up with if they hadn’t split-up. No Longer Silent is one of the best (and sadly underrated) albums of its kind. For those who prefer doom metal to have a deathly flavor, or enjoy death metal that's not all frantic fast-paced, this album is very much essential.