ALBUM REVIEW: Abhorrent Dimensions – Sepulchral Curse
Having being active for a decade now, Turku’s SEPULCHRAL CURSE are a firmly established entity within the Finnish death metal scene. Their earliest work, similarly to a lot of the nation’s death metal acts, took a lot of its influences from old school death metal, but peppered in enough elements of doom and melodicism to distinguish the quintet from the pack, paying homage to a classic formula whilst adding enough variety to hint at a potential for musical experimentation. The band’s latest album, Abhorrent Dimensions, sees them develop these subtle touches and make them significantly more overt, crafting a brand of OSDM that sounds unlike the vast majority of their contemporaries.
Onward The Legions is an absolute juggernaut of a track, kicking things off with chaotic belligerence built upon frenetic drums, chunky, discordant guitar work and coarse gutturals which all create a domineering wall of sound interspersed with some angular melodic leads, serving as a rabid and varied start to the record. The Serpents Of Uncreation reins in the aggression of the previous track and shifts to a slower, more rhythmic approach that sounds decidedly more focused but nonetheless powerful. It’s a darkly atmospheric piece of music, due in no small part to the guitars and broader feel, with only a few jarring moments returning to the caustic intensity of the opener, allowing the finer elements of the drums and bass to get a hearing in the mix.
Among The Wretched Columns strikes a fine balance between the bellicose ferocity of the first track and the focused, brooding qualities of the second, with the overall sound being fast and feral, but noticeably tighter, developing a sharper, more biting style made up of sudden time changes and machine-gun precision on all fronts, with the monstrous growl of the vocals adding a dense counterpoint to the acerbic edge of the music that backs them.
Graveyard Lanterns adopts eerie, reverb-drenched guitar tones and ponderous leads as it gradually morphs from its hauntingly dramatic beginnings to a thicker, punchier slab of death metal with some imaginative riffs and lighter flourishes which all make for a great change of pace from the unflinching savagery of the preceding three offerings. Stagnant Waters leans into a more disjointed and layered sound that again lets the bass and drums rise more prominently to the fore, with the guitars possessing a dissonant and grating side that strips away the some of the catchier melodicism that is present on many of the other tracks, but retains the thunderous undercurrent that makes this whole album feel monolithic.
Burial Of Souls, with its fantastic guitar hooks, visceral cacophony and cavernous drum sound, proves to be arguably the album’s most bestial moment, although it manages to apply the technical polish, cleaner passages and intricacy that are hinted at elsewhere on this record to result in a song that is simultaneously viciously lean and expansive in its musical scope. Through Abhorrent Dimensions, by contrast, is a fairly measured piece of death metal with huge rhythms, spartan, weighty leads and rumbling gutturals that form perhaps one of the most straight forward efforts on the whole album, barring some bursts of dizzying brutality that are peppered into the mix, making this a solid but slightly anticlimactic conclusion to the album.
Perhaps more so than their previous album, Abhorrent Dimensions sees SEPULCHRAL CURSE applying their own distinct flavour to their music. Although this album does still take a lot of its core influences from old school death metal, there’s plenty of dissonance, chaotic flourishes and intricacy thrown into the mix to make this stand apart from the vast majority of records in a similar style, providing a searing and jarring take on a sound that is well established without adding too much and completely alienating their listeners. It’s a lot more imaginative and impactful than Only Ashes Remain, and presents a more focused and eclectic version of the band that further cements them as one of Finland’s premier death metal acts.
Rating: 8/10
Abhorrent Dimensions is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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