ALBUM REVIEW: Cinis – Consecration

The word Cinis is Latin for ‘cold ashes’ and is a word long connected to themes of death, destruction and ruin. A perfectly fitting name then for the new record from UK death-doom quintet CONSECRATION, a band that has been clutching the scene with its cold dead hands since 2010. More recently, they exhumed three deep cuts from their back catalogue and breathed new horrific life into them on their EP Reanimated, which was designed to give their baying fans enough to tide them over until the release of this very record. From those three tracks, it became clear that vocalist Daniel Bollans, guitarist Liam Houseago, bassist Shane Amies and drummer Jorge Figueiredo had found their final missing piece in guitarist Andy Matthews and were able to hone their craft into its most miserable yet enthralling possible iteration to date.

Cinis continues this fine fettled form, comprising nine tracks of bleak sonic horror which combine the grand misery of doom and the abject terror of old school death metal to Earth shattering effect. The Dweller In The Tumulus thunders out of the grave with doomic majesty that agonises when it slows to the telltale crawl synonymous with the genre, and punctuated with soaring solos and deluges of drumming to represent the death element. These Fleeting Memories provides further proof that CONSECRATION has struck a perfect balance; this record stands as the perfect representation of death-doom in 2022.

Bollans also deserves a special shout out for proving once again that his are some of the best vocals in the scene at the moment; commanding and flexible, his delivery strikes fear into the hearts of those who hear it and when it’s teamed with the backing vocals it’s a potent concoction that will shake you to your core. Nowhere more so than on The Charnel House, a blackened slab of a track that sees the band throw everything bar the kitchen sink at the listener. There is not a single second across the 3:38 runtime where they pause for breath, and though it is the shortest track on the record (save for an instrumental interlude and closer), this will be the one that sticks with you, still felt rumbling through the corridors of eternal time. As much as Cinis stands to be a defining record for CONSECRATION, The Charnel House stands to be the track they are best known for.

But as the ash rains down from the ruinous destruction, there are spectacular moments of gorgeous tranquillity; most notably a final mournful statement as Cinis is laid to rest in In Loving Abandonment. This stripped back, instrumental piece is delicately plucked on guitars, all without the thunderous rhythm section that has been a staple of CONSECRATION‘s sound. It still possesses all the melancholy and malice of the rest of the record, but served up in a wholly unique style we were yet to have heard from the band in their works to date. They employ a similar style for the opening minutes of Embrace Of Perpetual Mourning, lending a poignant and heart wrenching tinge to the record. They say practice what you preach, and here, CONSECRATION have proven that they are wholly representing everything that death-doom purports to be, from the rot and decay to the sombre and moving.

Cinis is a stirring, evocative death-doom release that cements CONSECRATION as one of the UK’s premier proponents of the genre. With this line-up having found the perfect mix of elements, the bleak, sorrowful future of the scene belongs to them.

Rating: 8/10

Cinis is set for release on June 17th via Redefining Darkness Records.

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