ALBUM REVIEW: Kosmocide – Deus Mortem
Poland’s DEUS MORTEM have gradually, over the course of little over a decade, carved out an impressive following for themselves off the back of two full length records and two EPs, each showcasing brilliant music and songwriting. Well versed in the much headier, ferocious side of the genre, the bands brand of black metal is every bit as caustic and raw as it is aggressive and powerful. Their latest record, Kosmocide, comes over six years since their debut album came out, and just over two and a half years since the release of their Demons Of Matter And The Shell Of The Dead, consolidating their sound and producing what could well become a breakthrough album for them.
Remorseless Beast, bleak, rabid piece of speed driven ferocity, manages to make a great impression on the listener early on, with dense, chunky guitar lines, chaotic drumming and feral vocals all making for an impenetrable, fierce sound that grabs the listeners attention right out of the gate. This song is a harbinger of things to come on the record, and fits the mould that many of the songs on the record adhere to; razor sharp, blisteringly fast music, with a raw, dirty edge and a prevalent rage and aggression that doesn’t let up throughout. The Soul Of The Worlds, Through the Crown It Departs and The Seeker in particular follow a similar path, the unrelenting intensity, tight, cacophonous musicianship and a grating, bellicose production, all coupled with a few notable epic flourishes, help to give this this album much of it’s piss and venom, and injecting plenty of visceral energy into the proceedings.
To characterise this album as mostly fast, punchy and caustic black metal would be to do it a massive disservice though, as there is a ton of variety and great moments in among these equally fantastic, shredding black metal moments. Sinister Lava, for example, strips away most of the accelerated tempos and feverish extremity in favour of slower, more doom-laden motifs, which give this song a great atmosphere that makes it stand head and shoulders above many of the other songs.
Ceremony of Reversion p.2 also differentiates itself from the majority of the songs not just in terms of its sound, which makes use of crisp, yet still unflinchingly dark, acoustic guitar passages, but also in terms of its length. Whereas many of the songs are relatively short and to the point, this song, a follow up to a song that appeared on their debut full length, is a sprawling, grandiose affair that is made up of a whirlwind of dizzying guitars, precise, thunderous drumming and shrill, vicious vocals, with more of a focus on building an atmosphere and peppering the track with lots of great melodies than at many points earlier on the album. It shifts into a far more primal section as it enters its second half, which again separates it significantly from what has preceded it, providing a brilliant climactic exclamation point on this record. Kosmocide‘s closing effort, The Destroyer, likewise makes use of solid, palpable atmospherics and more mid-tempo motifs in lieu of breakneck speed and visceral rage, although it is still definitely a sharp and powerful song, driven by soaring lead guitars and sonorous, hellish howls which marks it as one of the better songs on the record, and bring the album to a close on a very high note.
As a cohesive whole, Kosmocide is brilliant. It doesn’t seek to make long and expansive songs, instead opting to make leaner, more streamlined songs which don’t outstay their welcome. There’s plenty of diversity in terms of speed, aggression and emotive power allotted to each song, which ensures that each of the tracks is able to stand out in their own right, and they ultimately never feel repetitive or meaningless. Each song could be used as the lead song off the album, and there’s little, if any, filler on display here. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the strongest and most impressive record to date from DEUS MORTEM, and they have set an incredibly lofty bar for any future music to overcome.
Rating: 9/10
Kosmocide is out now via Terratur Possessions.
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