From Ancient Slumber / The Horrid Silence Thus Began

Featuring 2 artists from the Netherlands who are fond of depicting the grim side of life, this Chaos Records split sees both Grim Fate (featuring members of Burial Remains) and The Sombre (yet another project of Gnaw Their Tongues’ Maurice de Jong) turn their hands to doom metal with different helpings of death metal. Grim Fate can be considered more of a deathly prospect, possessing the broad crunch of guitar that countrymen like Asphyx use, yet only setting off into rumbling mid-pace a few times during 3 long tracks. As such, the crushing menace of ‘Smoarige Fine’ perhaps needs a tiny bit more atmosphere than echoing melodies and steamroller riffs to lumber through 11 minutes, though the trio mix up sounds enough to keep things mostly dynamic. A whirling blastbeat explosion on ‘From Ancient Slumber’ also sees the title track of the first half assailing the listener most violently.

On the moodier side of death doom, parts of The Sombre’s 3 songs seem extremely spacious by comparison to Grim Fate’s. ‘His Pride Had Cast Him Out from Heav’n’ especially allows sparse bass and drums to be joined first by ethereal piano melody, then the sinuous guitar harmonies of the early British death doom bands, sounding rather like Anathema already on the road to post-rock. Elsewhere, de Jong’s growled vocals ensure some real heaviness, as does the churning flurry of death during ‘The Horrid Silence Thus Began’, though the prevailing mood is indeed a kind of sombre reticence, highlighted by the closer’s violin and clean ornamentation. As both bands’ only release of 2021, and featuring all exclusive songs, this split seems a great chance to sample a couple of newer groups making expansive death doom.


Originally written for Metalegion #10 - www.metalegion.com