Desecresy – Chasmic Transcendence
Deckard Cain reviews the new album from Desecresy titled Chasmic Transcendence, released via Xtreem Music.
I like their cover art which is simple but comes with great texture. Also they stick to a single color combination with black every time. (Red/Blue/Green now). One cannot escape the feeling that the art is closely intertwined with each release.
Desecresy is one band I’ve started to take a liking for. Their brand of Bolt Thrower-y death metal, freshly cast into moulds of Asphyx’s doom and then tempered and cooled with languid yet powerful Finnish melodies are something that’d fit the definition of fresh. Especially so in a genre that although well into its revival mode, is just heaping staler stuff one over the other.
Chasmic Transcendence their 3rd full length turns up the doom factor to ‘all pervasive’. The ‘trudging through clayey sand’ fixture which was The Doom Skeptron, has been promoted to ‘trudging through tar’ status on their latest. Everything here seems to crawl and heave, all the while trawling its heavy contents along. And yet there is an elegance that is discernible that’s held within. What sets them apart from some of their usual death doom/OSDM peers is this clever employment of slow melodies, seemingly, around which each track is built. The very same kind that worms its way inside one’s head and cocoons all the contents therein. While most of old school death metal revels in its very earthy, reality- driven aura, Desecresy’s, lets out a more spacey and cosmic vibe. One can hold the melody guilty in this regard. A close relative would be the kind that you hear on a Bolzer record, if you’ve never heard Desecresy before that is, although they are the older band.
When compared to their last album The Doom Skeptron, the most marked difference here is probably the production. The more clean yet sharp edged sound of TDS seems to have been traded for a deliberately murkier and atmospheric approach on Chasmic Transcendence. A return to Arches of Entropy (their equally of note debut) perhaps, but murkier more so. Even Jarno’s vocals seems to have been tweaked for a more cavernous feel than that is usual off him. But this is where I personally felt that it sort of undermined the overall output. The riffs and melodic leads too often get muddled at the behest of the contrived murkiness. It was always the slight yet audible contrast between the melody driven, non-distorted parts and the beefy riffs that made the Desecresy sound quite enjoyable. Tracks like Travelers of the Forbidden Planes(closing melody) and Infinite Halls(mid section melody), both good tracks, could have done with better elucidation at their melodic sections which were I felt the best in the album. I wished it was a bit clearer to hear.
And yet the album is greatly enjoyable. It still does pack quite a punch with riffs that steam roll every goddamn lifeform in its wake (a la Shattered Monuments and The Denied Legacy). Although there is nothing like Vortex Unwinding on the album there are indeed songs like Son of the Burning God II the thematic and structural follow-up to its brethren on The Doom Skeptron, the irresistibly catchy Voracious Mass, and the cosmic closer Autumn of Souls, all of which still bear the mark of Desecresy. The mark of rack and ruin that shall come forth to decimate. Get Finnished.
RATING : 3.5/5 (Treading a path that shall grow hallowed with age)
Stream the entire album below via Bandcamp
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