ALBUM REVIEW: Sermon of Apathy – Desolator

Little over a decade since the initial release of the bands debut Gravefeast demo, Sweden’s DESOLATOR have gone on to carve themselves a name within the international death metal scene. With one foot very firmly planted within the old school sound, and at various points drawing inspiration from the likes of IMMOLATION, DISMEMBER and VADER without straying into the realms of carbon copy, the band have garnered a solid reputation off the back of their brilliant debut album, Unearthly Monument and 2016’s Spawn of Misanthropy EP. Their latest full length, Sermon of Apathy, streamlines their already impressive sound further, marking perhaps the bands defining offering to date.

Portal Tomb is a dark and fierce start to the album, with melodic, hazy guitars and thunderous drumming creating a powerful and immersive sound right out of the gate. The music manages to possess just the right mixture of tight, catchy moments and more rabid ones, with some excellent, booming gutturals adding plenty of depth to the sound, setting an eclectic and imposing tone for the next six songs. Adversarial Doctrine, a far punchier number with a dense guitar sound and authoritative drums proves to be a more groove-laden, rhythmic affair, punctuated with monstrous vocals and a beefy, bubbling bass line. Just as the song before it, it draws inspiration from an old school sound, but does a great job of adding the bands own flavour, keeping the music fresh.

Creatures of Habit sees the slick, imaginative leads return to the forefront of the sound, with deliberate, brooding hooks acting as a brilliant counterpoint to the thick, sludgy quality of the vocals and bass, and resulting in a more engrossing feel. Methods of Self-Deception sees a definite shift in the albums sound, with haunting clean guitars, which have made a few sparse appearances earlier on the album begin to dominate the sound. When coupled with the crushing rhythms and the as always great vocals, this makes for an interesting and different style that diversifies the album’s sound and serves as an impressive change of pace.

The Human Condition is a significant departure from the sound of the song that preceded it, with blistering guitars, cacophonous percussion and much more feral, acerbic vocals giving this song an aggressive and savage edge that sets it apart for all the right reasons, ensuring that this relatively brief, yet intense, offering sticks in listens mind extremely quickly.

Vaticide, with its massive, chugging guitars and monolithic, minimalist drumming and slower pace, has a huge sound, peppered with sparse, but incredibly effective, lead flourishes and some more of those acidic, snarling vocal deliveries that made the previous track so fantastic lending this song a more foreboding and epic feel than the ones that have come before it. It may be the album’s shortest track, but it leaves its mark on the album, setting the listener up for the albums final song, The Great Law of the Dead, quite well. This final, sprawling slab of death metal incorporates the various elements that make this band sound amazing, from the brooding, ethereal melodies that open it to the chunkier, muscular rhythms that follow, with plenty of visceral, chaotic motifs spread throughout. The guest solo by NILE‘s KARL SANDERS and the vocal blasts of PHIDION‘s Oliver Palmquist both make for great inclusions, and both add to this songs many charms, resulting in an excellent end to the record.

Comparing this album to DESOLATOR‘s previous full-length, it’s easy to see how the band’s sound has altered in the seven years that has separated the two records; Most notably, there’s a marked step up in terms of the production quality, which gives this album a fresher, and certainly catchier sound, than its predecessor. Furthermore, the sound is far more imaginative and eclectic. Although both records do an excellent job of paying homage to the old school death metal sound, this latest record does a much better job of encapsulating all the myriad elements that make classic death metal so great, from polished, melody-driven moments through to much more cacophonous, jarring ones. There’s little to find in the way of fault on this album, and if nothing else, this album establishes DESOLATOR as one of the premier old school sounding acts currently active in the underground at large.

Rating: 8/10

Sermon Of Apathy is out now via Black Lion Records.

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