Darkest of the dark and evil black/death metal has been enjoying a healthy rejuvenation over the last few years, with plenty of bands spewing forth their caustic riffs of old school fury and strains of modern flair. Labels like Nuclear War Now and Dark Descent have been vital cogs in this machine, releasing some key records of late, and it’s the latter that takes the stage this time, releasing Svn Eater, the second LP from London outfit Lvcifyre.
As if the name and spelling didn’t give it away, Lvcifyre are damned souls tasked at delivering sounds from the pits of hell. Svn Eater is filthy primeval metal balanced on the scale where death and black metal converge.
Similar to their first album, The Calling Depths, this new LP is a forceful battering ram of death metal, where very little give or mercy is displayed. The only respite comes in the form of eerie washes of samples that evoke images and scenes of the occult, a more than suitable accompaniment aesthetically.
‘Night Seas Sorcery’ first commences in doom-like shades with reverberating guitars and wretched throaty vocals that set a horrid tone to begin before shedding all reservations with ‘Calicem Obscurum’ and erupting into a flurry of blasting mayhem and searing riffs that would make Incantation and the pre-Radikultin’ Morbid Angel proud.
From here, Svn Eater’s modus operandi is clear as day, where ‘Liber Lilith’s rumbling aggression serves as evidence. Following that, the title track really ups the ante, moving Lvcifyre into an upper tier of death metal, alongside their countrymen in Grave Miasma and Cruciamentum. Unholy barrages of drumming, scything riffs, and earth shaking growls rule the roost to supreme effect.
The band are also dab hands at mixing up the stride when needs be. ‘Fyre Made Flesh’ kicks in with more paced but no less hammering and chugging riffs at first, with the drumming maintaining the velocity. ‘The Sinister Calling’, the album’s end note, coalesces all of the band’s now established traits into a superlative end times salvo to bring a close to the record with blazing riffs and vocal horrors abounding.
2014 has some hefty death metal players scheduled to release records in the coming months, like Corpsessed and the alleged release from Dead Congregation, and with Lvcifyre’s Svn Eater, the year is off to a very encouraging start.
Svn Eater is out January 27th through Dark Descent
