Sepulchral Psalms from the Abyss of Torment

It’s been a while since the release of “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” album and “Temple of Death” cassette EP. But Kingdom is back, once again in very good form and their newest album “Sepulchral Psalms from the Abyss of Torment” is truly a savage and vicious recording, which should appeal to all death and black metal maniacs. I do mean it; because this album is a fantastic combination of both styles, played in raw, morbid way of old school. Obviously it’s mainly based in the death metal sound, this is the fundament of Kingdom music, but the black metal influence can be spotted here also, alike to bands like Embrace of Thorns, Bestial Raids, Teitanblood and sometimes even going back in time to Darkthrone’s “A Blaze In the Northern Sky”.

Anyway, “Sepulchral Psalms from the Abyss of Torment” sounds fantastic. When I started to listen to this album, I immediately knew that it’s gonna rip the fuckin guts out and that it’s a fine crushing stuff. The production is so bloody good here, as it’s harsh and heavy, but at the same time it’s bloody powerful, so every sound is like a massive punch in the face and the music has this great obscure feeling, which correspondents fantastically with the overwhelming heaviness and brutality of Kingdom music. The sound is also quite organic, it all sounds just properly and far from artificial, plastic productions of many nowadays bands, even those, which also call their music “old school”.

The music is as extreme as old school metal can be, and it delivers some fantastic riffs and arrangements, with every song having something special to offer. They may sound a bit like some old Morbid Angel, Acheron and Incantation, like in fantastic “Sepulcral Psalms”, “Abyss of Torment” or “Whispering the Incantation of Eternal Fire”, when the tempo is slowed down. But when the band speeds up, then a real hell breaks loose and damn, it’s more like Throneum meets Angel Corpse, Vital Remains and BM bands I mentioned earlier. Such beasts as “Monolith of Death” will strike fast and kill with no mercy! I love this intensity, heaviness, morbid feeling and gloominess of Kingdom music, I truly think they have some great riffs and the vocals of LWN are also worth mentioning. Among all the songs, “Kaplica ducha zgniłego” definitely stands out, as with the Polish lyrics this song sounds even more blasphemous and obscure than anything else here. And the riffing in this song, as well as the vocal parts are insanely good.

Standout tracks: “Abyss of Torment”, “Kaplica ducha zgniłego”, “Sepulcral Psalms”, “Whispering the Incantation of Eternal Fire”
Final rate: 80/100

Keeping their old-school sound intact, Polish death metal veterans Kingdom have gained a loyal following for their die-hard adherence to a blackened old-school attack of churning death metal madness. With a three-year gap between records that sees the band employing new bassist STH and being his first recorded output for the band, their third full-length effort is originally released October 30, 2016 on new label Godz ov War Productions.

From the onset here this is quite obviously a grand old-school styled affair which wraps plenty of strong and impressive elements within. The main focus here is on the band's devoutly old-school style attack, from the swirling tremolo-laced patterns that are intertwined throughout here with the lurching, sprawling riff-work at the core of the band’s sound which manage to add a darkened, swampy attack to the slow, sprawling riff-work. This is highly impressive for the most part as this atmospheric displays reeks of the sprawling, deep churning vibe of the old-school scene which is then played at a variety of tempos that alternate from the ferocious up-tempo thrasher to a chugging mid-tempo outburst and a doom-riddled sprawl that offers plenty of crusty elements to the band’s signature swampy lurch with this series of deviations allowing for a wholly well-rounded outcome that gets melded together in competent, coherent fashion. It’s all tied together in lengthy, sprawling numbers that gel incredibly well together as this allows for the album to ebb and flow together while still remaining constant and charging to generate the required liveliness to make for a compelling effort. The fact that this all comes together so well yet still feels way too short is a great effort as well, but does highlight the one minor flaw here in that this does come off like it needs another track or two just to round itself off into a more complete form, as everything here works so well but does feel brief with only eight tracks, albeit seven originals with the fine cover at the end tying this up nicely so it does feel like another track or so would’ve pushed this over the edge what with the quality on display here.

Though this one does feel a bit too short and rather brief overall, the fact that the competency and utterly impressive displays found throughout here overcome that to quite a large degree that it becomes the main element holding this one back from further greatness as it should readily appeal to all revivalist death metal fans, old-school aficionados or most fans of extreme metal in general.