Sermon of Apathy

Swedish death metallers Desolator are back with their second full length album of ruthless, doomy extremity.

Thundering bass, hammered drums and sparse riffs bring in a dissonant, expansive array of death metal from the abyss. Vocals that feel more like an incantation join the instrumental battery that convulses with a hectic volatility, taking the riveting extremity into untraversed territories. While definitely old school in their approach, there is nothing derivative about this technically proficient yet unfathomably filthily music. With such nasty riffs and tight drums, a killer vocal performance is necessary to pull off the discordant, otherworldly death metal assault, thankfully we get this with a gut-rupturing guttural spew from the vocalist. All of the ingredients for some prime death metal are certainly present.

Ferociously driven, we continue down a charnel pathway of endlessly evolving, warping magnificence. Doomy sections bring out a huge layer of atmospherics, drenching the rotten onslaught with ambience of cosmic proportions. While often progressive / technical aspects of death metal can give it an overly polished or just obnoxious and showy nature, this does not fall into that trap. In the delivery there is more than enough aggression to feel sincere, a unique enough approach to make things memorable and huge amounts of atmosphere to really suck you in to the ruthless performance from start to end. This makes it rather a special release which will appeal to fans of Demilich, Blood Incantation, Horrified and Horrendous etc.

Pulverising riffs and diverse drum works keeps rolling forth brilliant new ideas to back up a slew of demonic vocals. The restless and energetic approach to songwriting really pays off to give us a huge array of sounds which work cohesively to paint a far greater picture of chaotic yet stunningly proficient death metal. There is a ton of nuance to be found on this record that will leave you endlessly seeking more, which is a great thing as there is limitless boundaries explored here. Although brutal and also progressive, the sheer amount of catchy grooves and hooks gives it a nature that is easy to get into and remember which is then expanded upon to elevate the mind into distant realms. Truly astounding.

Desolator have delivered some masterful death metal with plenty to offer in every direction. Progression, brutality, atmosphere and technicality can be found in abundance, coherently delving into various otherworldly realms in an extremely unique and phenomenally executed fashion. I have no doubt that most death metal fans will be blown away by this one.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com