ALBUM REVIEW: Disavowed, And Left Hopeless – Our Place Of Worship Is Silence
It has been three long, arduous years since last we heard from Los Angeles-based proliferators of caustic punishment OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE. This silence however is to be shattered with the release of their third full-length, Disavowed, And Left Hopeless. We already know what to expect from the third instalment in their triptych from what has come before: ruminations on the metaphysical and esoteric conflicts of man set to some of the most vitriol-spattered music ever recorded. But with such a scorching trail already blazed, how will this new entry stand up to their earlier efforts?
The album opens with The Conspiracy Against Cruelty, a song which sets things off with an immediately dense and suffocating tone and a dragging slab of a riff, fully encased in murderous atmosphere that only gets more deranged and sadistic as the pace picks up. As mission statements go, it’s discordant, threatening and effective. The final knuckle-dragging riff slows down to an agonising crawl before bleeding across into Covenant Of The Fallen.
The sophomore track opens with a strained shriek that heralds the arrival of a blistering, caustic sheet of filth-crusted power chords and torturous vocals. Overtly bleak and jarring, it conjures images to the mind of hellscapes of twisted metal and faces rent with anguish. If Heironymous Bosch’s fiery depiction of hell had come with a soundtrack, it would be nigh indistinguishable from this.
Third track Fury Divine does exactly what it says on the tin, hitting like the audible equivalent of the wrath of an angry god, both punitive and awe-inspiring in equal measure. There are several moments of truly dizzying speed and downright nihilistic vitriol that will knock the wind out of the unexpecting. There is no colour, no light and no joy to be found here or anywhere else on this record and that is made sharply apparent by this early, pulverising ordeal before it tails off into a solo that would make Trey Azagthoth himself wipe a tear from his eye.
The title track, Disavowed, And Left Hopeless, does not mess around. Taking the brutish formula we know and love by this point and dousing it in savage frenzy, it becomes a labyrinthine maelstrom of sharp, angular riffing and grinding blast beats, drenched in sludgy atmosphere and genuinely frightening vocals. Unflinching and excellent stuff. Following on from this, we come to Mdłości II. Not enough bands are prepared to pay homage to their contemporaries with covers, so its an exciting and interesting choice to include one from polish black metal stalwarts MGŁA. It adds a fresh, bulked out feel to a modern black metal classic and fits in fairly seamlessly amongst the band’s original material.
Turning to the album’s closing salvo, From The Noisome Pestilence gets things started with grating blackened melodies laced throughout, providing a rare whiff of traditional melody but without compromising on the trademark skull-crushing heaviness. Rounding out the album is The Scourge. Much like the original intent of its namesake, it will rend the flesh from your bones with its barbed savagery and leave you broken and bloody. It’s a barbed thicket of piercing musicality, touching on all of OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE’s favourite little tricks in order to produce a discordant, deranged and devastating closer. The only real shame is that it ends on a fade out rather than one final, killing blow.
Overall, what we find with Disavowed, And Left Hopeless is a refinement. A step up from 2018’s already excellent With Inexorable Suffering and a high watermark for the band’s furious and near-impenetrable sound. If this is a trajectory that can be maintained, then OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE are already on track to take their unique blend of all metal’s nastiest filth and heighten it to truly legendary status.
Rating: 8/10
Disavowed, And Left Hopeless is out now via Translation Loss Records.
Follow OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE on Bandcamp.