ALBUM REVIEW: The Broken Seal – Lvcifyre
The biggest gift lockdown has given is time. When the world ground to a halt in the wake of the pandemic last year, for creative, ample time was now available to forge and create. For London’s LVCIFYRE, this reigns true as The Broken Seal arrives after a seven year wait.
Spawned from the turmoil of lockdown, the band’s third full-length is an onslaught of frenetic blackened death metal that captures the darkness and demise of a world upturned by a global pandemic. Opener God Awaits Us wastes no time in hurling the listener into the abyss as a cacophony of blast beats and contorted riffing pummel and obliterate anyone who dares stand in their path whilst T. Kaos‘ intimidating guttural vocals carry enough weight to hold their own in the aural bombardment.
From there, LVCIFYRE‘s shock and awe campaign continues to leave you gasping for breath. Tribes of Khem dynamically switches from mid-tempo stomps to blistering passages of extremity that showcases the firepower at drummer Menthor‘s disposal, Black Beneath The Sun benefits from a suffocating and engrossing atmosphere that helps the black metal-tinged instrumentation be all the more impactful and the title-track features some utterly monstrous vocals that combine brilliantly with the towering wall of amplified noise. When LVCIFYRE go for the jugular, the result is jaw-dropping.
There’s no doubting that The Broken Seal is a dark and nihilistic slab of extreme metal. And when it connects, it does so with the utmost ferocity. However, there are moments when LVCIFYRE stutter, the momentum dips and the record loosens its stranglehold. This is especially true in the record’s latter stages as repetition rears its ugly head and softens the impact somewhat. Whilst The First Archon boasts some impressive chugging riffs, which will sound colossal in the live environment, the track eventually becomes tired and sluggish, Blood Of Az loses itself in a myriad of hefty noise and lacks any real stand-out moments and finale Black Mass doesn’t particular capitalise on the benefit of its extended runtime, instead it meanders in a slow crawl for the first two minutes. Whilst the songs are fine enough on their own individual merits, in the context of the record as one collective piece, it is disappointing that The Broken Seal limps to the finish line rather than concluding on an explosive and incendiary high.
The Broken Seal will tickle the fancy for anyone who divulges into the realm of extreme music. Whilst the record does contain some bloat and some forgettable passages in the closing stages, there is more than enough quality on offer here that showcases that LVCIFYRE are a band that warrant your attention. Dark, aggressive and packing enough aural hellfire to make the devil himself quake in his boots, The Broken Seal is a fine addition to the UK’s booming underground scene and one in which sets the band in good favour to establish themselves as a flagship name for aural extremity.
Rating: 7/10
The Broken Seal is out now via NoEvDia/Dark Descent Records.
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