Ascendant Blasphemy

‘Ascendant Blasphemy’ is the debut LP from this Canadian outfit. It’s a forceful mix of cyclical Rotting Christ style riffs, with the oppressiveness of early Samael, and some riffs even reaching all the way back to Celtic Frost in their relentless and dronelike qualities, as if they being dragged along unwilling by the dictates of the rhythm section. Conventional minor key melodies come up against the raw atonality of older riff styles in a concoction that is both a single-minded assault on the ears, whilst managing to constantly refresh itself, avoiding stagnation despite deviating little in tone or mood from start to finish.

It’s a rare thing to say in the context of my usual take on extreme metal albums at large, but it’s the vocals that make this one. Each line has been recorded over at least two tracks, sometimes more, with each take being set at roughly the same pitch. The effect is similar to Deicide’s first album, whereby the delivery seems to collapse before our ears, emanating from a person whose individuality is breaking apart, with dual or multiple demonic entities taking over from the single, unified self. The vocals themselves are pitched at the mid-range, sometimes veering toward lower, guttural growls, but always with each vocal track following roughly the same route through the music, which again contributes to this off-kilter, deranged delivery.

The reason we need to make so much of the vocals on ‘Ascendant Blasphemy’ is partly down to the intriguing layering technique that has been applied to them, but also because they are pretty much a constant throughout the course of this album, with very few passages of extended, raw instrumentation. That’s not to say the music itself is limited. It veers from mid-paced blast-beats defined by their simple but classically formed melodic shapes and slow, doom passages of droning chords that provide waves of energy for these despondent lead melodies to surf on. The vocals will then follow a similar pattern, either tunnelling through the faster passages with elongated notes sustained through this multifaceted attack, or else raining down aphorisms as if from a podium over these ponderous, marching passages of martial old school metal straight from the book of Samael.

The slower passages are directly contrasted with galloping rhythms which take on a more purposeful melodic flavour, colliding mid-paced tremolo picked riffs with the intermittent cannon fire of tom rolls. There are small respites from the onslaught, as with the track ‘Lay Fire’, which sees the drums cut out for a brief period, allowing the guitars to work through some simple, clean arpeggios. But the one constant through it all is these persistent, multi-layered demonic vocals. In other hands this technique may have come over as obnoxious or distracting, but here they are masterfully worked into the overall tone of the music to enhance the oppressive qualities of this delicately poised concoction. And for this reason Plague Weaver can get away with a near constant vocal delivery as an important avenue of articulation, enhancing the music’s expressive range. This makes for a subtly innovative release that reopens the door to untapped potentials within distorted vocal techniques, which are often thought to be a needles limitation in extreme metal, but here they are both used to great effect and act as an asset that elevates the overall impact of the finished work.

Originally published at Hate Meditations