Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail Review

By Tyme

Though often yoked to the tech death scene, I’ve never found Dormant Ordeal particularly technical. Or at least not in the way bands like Defeated Sanity, Archspire, or Gorod are considered technical. Why is this important? Because on Tooth and Nail, their fourth outing and first for new label Willowtip, we see Dormant Ordeal step further away from any vestiges of technicality. Factor in too that, since the release of We Had It Coming, Dormant Ordeal continues to shrink—the most recent departure being that of drummer and founding member Radek Kowal—and you have an ordeal ripe for drama. Dormant Ordeal has, however, always managed high levels of quality output. AMG’s own Dr. Wvrm praised 2016’s WHIT with a TYMHM treatment and crowned 2021’s The Grand Scheme of Things with a 4.0 of thorns. Still, I wondered how Kowal’s absence would affect the Dormant Ordeal sound and whether Tooth and Nail would have the amount of fight I’d hoped for.

A showcase for every weapon at Dormant Ordeal‘s disposal, Tooth and Nail writhes with ruthless savagery, staying true to the classic Polish death metal sound. And while the likes of Decapitated, Ulcerate, and Gaerea still hold some comparative weight, Dormant Ordeal has done more than enough to step from the shadows of comparison into the light of its own sound. Like a grizzled wizard atop rocky crags, Maciej Nieścioruk casts rifferous spells filled with whirling tremolos, walls of layered dissonance, grinding chugs, and cascading shimmers of post-metal strums as well as bass lines brimming with gravitas. Chason Westmoreland (Cambion, ex-Equipoise, ex-Hate Eternal) fills in behind the kit and turns in a monstrous performance. His snare blasts, machine-like double kicks, and miles of tom fills lend warmth and deep richness to the vibrant drum sound, departing from Dormant Ordeal‘s former snare-heavy drone. Add in the fact that Maciej Proficz sounds more beastly and vicious than I’ve ever heard him, and we realize this iteration of Dormant Ordeal walks a different path—a path of blackened death, sure, but also one of well-crafted atmospheres, post-metallic melodicism, and a low-end presence absent from previous efforts.

For every passage on Tooth and Nail that tips a hat toward Dormant Ordeal‘s past, there are as many that point to a brighter future. Longtime fans will feel wrapped in a warm, WHIC comforter when the stutter-stepping, skronky riffs of “Dust Crown” take off or the theatrically dramatic “Orphans” flies by in blurs of blistering blasts and speed-hungry riffs. These moments juxtaposed against the brilliance of the plodding, weighty drama of “Solvent,” an atmospheric long-player full of melancholic guitar lines and shimmering tremolos or the very excellent “Against the Dying of the Light,” a nod to Dylan Thomas that is one of the most vicious songs on the album, Proficz’s roar of ‘Against the dying of the light. RAGE!” gives me goosebumps every time. Every song a marvel, Tooth and Nail finds Dormant Ordeal plumbing new depths of excellence by tapping into a dormant, lush production that suits the material to a tee.

Aside from Westmoreland recording his drum parts, all aspects of the production on Tooth and Nail appear, at least on paper, the same as on TGSoT, even down to the DR score. Yet, this time, Pawel Grabowski exited the lab at JNS Studio with a mix that brought to life the dark textures of Nieścioruk’s bass lines (“Halo of Bones”) and the theatrical intricacies of his guitar work (“Everything That Isn’t Silence Is Trivial”) in a way no previous Dormant Ordeal album has managed. Every minute of Tooth and Nail‘s forty-seven-minute runtime is put to good use, leaving not even the traditional complaint of artistic bloat on the table. I suppose I would have liked to see a bit more instrumentality added to “Wije I Mary, Pt. 1” to better tie it to the beautifully executed work on the bookend “Wije I Mary, Pt. 2,” but even this minuscule nit barely registers.

From its cover to its content, Tooth and Nail represents the absolute best of what Dormant Ordeal can be. It isn’t easy to part ways with a band’s sole founding member. Many don’t survive. Perhaps the fight and struggle it took Nieścioruk and Proficz to overcome and usher Tooth and Nail into the light of day is reflected in the album’s title and theme, which is one of grit, determination, and doing the difficult thing, to fight tooth and nail if you will. I commend Dormant Ordeal for carrying on and in so doing releasing its best album yet.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 18th, 2025

#2025 #40 #Apr25 #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DormantOrdeal #Gaerea #PolishMetal #Review #Reviews #ToothAndNail #Ulcerate #WillowtipRecords

Chestcrush – ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ Review

By Tyme

Chestcrush is what happens when you fuck around and find out. These three blackened death dealers from Edinburgh, Scotland, formed in 2020, released their independent debut album, Vthelygmia, in 2021. That’s when Chestcrush caught my ear for the first time, penning one of my favorite songs, “Different Shepherd, Same Sheep.” After swapping original vocalist Thomas Blanc for Topias Jokipii, who debuted his wares on 2022’s Apechtheia EP, Chestcrush is back with its sophomore prüno-piss and vinegar-filled platter, ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ. Translated from Greek to mean ‘soul extractor,’ ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ metaphorically describes an experience or person that is so incredibly tormenting to you that it feels like it’s pulling your very soul out through your mouth. Will I need my jaw re-aligned after listening to ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ, or is this dog just a toothless barker?

Chestcrush executes its misanthropic, anti-everything brand of nihilism by fusing blackened deathgrind with sludgy, doomy industrialism on ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ. And even with the grindier bits dialed back, ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣA sounds like a bloodied blend of Anaal Nathrakh, Immolation, and Napalm Death sprinkled with an extra vitriolic dash o’ Nails. Evangelos Vasilakos crushes chests and eardrums with an onslaught of riffs full of brutish chugs, crusty sludge, and deathly density (“Existence is Punishment”). Drummer Robin Stone (Ashen Horde) brings the mutha-fuckin’ skulls to the yard with his rib-rattling, Anaal Nathrakhian double kick work, which often serves as a tempodic counterpoint to Evan’s wall of sound bass and guitar destruction (“We Shall Be Devoured by the Offspring of Our Own Flesh”). Topping off this sundae of fuck-off-fun-day decimation are the Mikael Åkerfeldtish vocals of Jokipii, whose roars and guttural growls bring an altogether beastlier edge to ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ‘s throat work. Chestcrush will not make you feel good about yourself, nor will they have you looking hopefully into the future.

Speaking of hope, if not abandoned wholly before entering Chestcrush‘s world, it will be by the time “Every Single Word That Comes Out of Your Filthy Hole Is an Infectious Lie a Spreading Disease” invades your earholes. It is a punishing, anti-religious anthem full of chunky riffs, dissonant tremolos, Stone’s inhuman drumming, and Jokipii’s tortured growls and screams, prefaced by an ominous warning, ‘Until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.’ And as the screechy, staticky ending of “Hang Them! Torch Them!” gives way to the tolling bells of the sludgy behemoth and album closer, “As the Damned Writhe in Eternal Woe,” it is clear that Chestcrush hates us all. ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ has no high points, no zenith; it is a cavalcade of sorrow, a series of nadirs plumbing depths subterranean of Dante’s seventh circle.

From the very Hellraiser-esque cover art courtesy of Vladimir Chebakov to the forty-minute runtime, Chestcrush‘s ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ is infinitely more mature than its predecessor, Vthelygmia. I attribute this leap in maturation to two things. First, Chestcrush‘s songwriting has blossomed like a blackened rose, resulting in fully developed compositions that wend, wind, and weave within themselves, an ebb and flow of drama that casts a pall of abject hopelessness over the entire affair. Second, the addition of vocalist Topias Jokipii, whose beefier delivery and propensity to stay in his lower, more guttural register better fit Chestrcush‘s aural aesthetic. I have little in the way of criticism for ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ, but there was something that stood out, which is a brief screech of feedback that rears its head throughout the album, mainly as an exclamation point. It works when employed to create an intersong dynamic (“Every Single Word…”), but it becomes grating when tacked on the end of nearly every track, sometimes twice (“We Shall Be Devoured…”).

Chestcrush has penned a dirge celebrating the death of humanity and is the human embodiment of existential hate. You’ll not be blasting ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ poolside this summer, cracking beers and seltzers with your buddies and their wives, crisping flesh in the sun. Chestcrush is of darkness, despair, and destitution, and that is where ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ will take you. I have committed several hours to ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ in preparation for this review, and this time has left me spent, my jaw firmly wired shut, soul removed. I think I need to go and listen to some Fellowship now.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 4, 2025

#2025 #35 #AnaalNathrakh #Apr25 #BlackMetal #Chestcrush #DeathMetal #Immolation #Nails #NapalmDeath #Review #Reviews #ScottishMetal #Sludge #ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ

Enevelde – Pandemonium Review

By Dear Hollow

There’s something to be said for simplicity in black metal. You don’t need an onslaught of atmospherics and technical skill to make it work – and in most cases, it’s discouraged. Sometimes you just need an effective chord progression, the right distortion, basically any vocal style that you can put through a reverb filter, and drums that hold a beat. Norway’s Enevelde knows this. Honing a distinctly cavernous approach to the Nidrosian black metal scene, the one-man act may not blow you away with its riffage, ferocity, or darkness, but third full-length Pandemonium aims for its most cohesive and sinister album yet.1

Enevelde is a project of B. Kråbøl, best known as vocalist of Misotheist and constituent of the second-wave Addams Family band Kråbøl, and at one time serving as drummer of the melodeath act Hypermass. While his projects are largely known for their intensity, Misotheist bringing the terror back to black metal and Kråbøl enacting traditional second-wave frigidity, Enevelde has always dealt in a more subtle and more evocative breed. Drums verge on DSBM in their restraint, rarely exploding into blastbeats, and guitars rely on droning tremolo picking rather than the sharp and vicious tinnitus with which we are accustomed. Vocals are guttural roars rather than sinister shrieks, lending a cavernous quality that adds depth and weight across the board. Following up 2020’s densely atmospheric self-titled debut and 2023’s more cruel and intense En Gildere Død, Pandemonium’s aim is subtlety, a creeping quality that suggests chaos rather than weaponizing it.

Subtlety is the emphasis for Enevelde, crafting subtly atmospheric tracks that rely on chord progressions, . Reminiscent of acts like Harakiri for the Sky or Gaerea, Kråbøl paints an unmistakably evocative picture with diminished chord progressions enriched by reverb-y roars and subtle synth flourishes (“Nigromantia,” “Helvete Reiser Seg”), haunted leads guiding grave, intensely dark, and nearly doomy weight (title track, “Eksilfyrste”), and fury and reaching the surface with tasteful blastbeats and dense bass (“Offer,” “Rasende Flammer”). The guitar tone throughout blends second-wave’s more barbed maceration (the raw misdirect opener “Gapende Grav) and a more modern doomish density (“Rasende Flammer”). Utilizing a style that kicks the gut-punch intensity down a few notches in favor of that creeping feeling, it’s a dreary piece of work in the most pleasant way.

While the best of black metal’s upper echelon features a smart blend of highlights and mood, Enevelde is very comfortable in its emphasis of the latter. Granted, you won’t come upon a black metal band that dwells in more cavernous tones often, but that’s about all that Enevelde does. It’s spooky blackened music with a somewhat unique vocal attack,2 a style that will please fans of the style, but there’s little else to be found aboard Pandemonium. Its slower dirge-like pacing is more akin to DSBM in the emotional gravitas attached to each plod, but if you’re not in the mood to be taken into the place that Kråbøl’s riffs and roars create, there’s nothing hooking you either. While effective, Enevelde is remarkably straightforward and one-note, its layers and richness devoted to the feeling in every movement. In short, there are no hooks aboard Pandemonium – just mood and reverie.

Enevelde has a good thing going, but its audience remains starkly limited. It will not change your mind on black metal, but its humble and straightforward execution, an atmosphere without the need for over-the-top theatrics, is a strong asset. It rarely rises above haunting and creepy, but it recognizes that it doesn’t need to. Pandemonium is far less an all-out chaos attack, and more demons are looming in the wings, utilizing punishment and insanity only when necessary. Enevelde offers a neat little black metal album – nothing more, nothing less.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Terratur Possessions
Website: 2 kvlt 4 u
Releases Worldwide: April 9th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Apr25 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #Enevelde #Firtan #Gaerea #HarakiriForTheSky #Hypermass #Kråbøl #Misotheist #NorwegianMetal #pandemonium #Review #Reviews #TerraturPossessions