Review: Vertebra Atlantis – A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime

Style: dissonant death metal, experimental black metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Deathspell Omega, Immolation
Review by: Andy
Country: Italy
Release date: 20 October, 2023

My ears perk up like a dog that knows one trick when I hear the word “sublime,” and I start salivating knowing that I’m in for a treat. My whole book on the theory behind metal (in progress) is centered around metal’s quest for dark sublimity. Titling your album A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime is a cheat code to get an Andy review, though I can’t promise I’ll be nice if I don’t think it’s as awe-inspiring and terrifying as I expect. Do Italy’s Vertebra Atlantis achieve dark sublimity on their sophomore album?

Their first album, Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss, was released only two years ago and contained many unwieldy, devilish twists, a dissonant release overshadowed by Ad Nauseam’s iconic Imperative Imperceptible Impulse but of astoundingly high quality itself. The follow-up, however, begins to move away from the Ad Nauseam-isms, the hard shell of dissonance cracking open to reveal, dare I say, a delicate melodicism. In this regard, the orchestrated synth background does a lot of the heavy lifting, changing the atmosphere from quagmire to epic battle-scene. Parts of the bulky album centerpiece “Desperately Ablaze, from the Lowest Lair” even sound like a dissodeath version of Summoning, transporting me straight to the battles of Middle Earth with the ethereal flute and majestic orchestral swells.

Credited with orchestration on metallum, G.G. (of Cosmic Putrefaction) produces some solid soundscapes for Vertebra Atlantis, but while epic and melodic, they sometimes feel a bit cheesy when compared to the real deal of Ad Nauseam’s strings: the danger is gone here, the stakes are lower. Moreover, the production occasionally falls into some cavernous death metal tropes–mostly a low-end reverb–that I don’t think are befitting of such a style of dissodeath since it demands clarity, not squelching wetness. However, G.G.’s guitar solos fit the mix excellently as well as contributing to that sense of melody seeping into the foundation of Vertebra Atlantis’s sound, so it’s really just the riff-heavy sections that feel a bit misguided in the production. Thankfully, the bass is prominent in the mix, and it even takes the lead in several highlight sections like on opener, “Into Cerulean Blood I Bathe.” 

Vertebra Atlantis certainly find themselves in A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime at points. The harmonic solos on “Frostpalace Gloaming Respite” are gloriously beautiful and really feel as if the band is finding their own identity in the dissonant-metal sphere with their unexpected beauty. The title track, for instance, could not have been predicted by anybody with its heartfelt clean singing and stellar post rock crescendoing. Finally, as mentioned before, the highlight of A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime simply has to be “Desperately Ablaze, from the Lowest Lair.” From the choral synths to the rocking flutes to the underlying skronky dissonance, the track is a sprawling prog epic, simultaneously focused and explorative. Near the end, it even takes a violent twist into black metal that I almost wish other tracks would take, especially “In Starlike Ancient Eyes” which moves at a Worm-crawl out of place compared to the rest of the tracks’ more straight death metal pace. 

I applaud Vertebra Atlantis for radically changing a lot of their identity here, but there are still kinks the band needs to work out before writing a truly sublime masterpiece. The questioning and restlessness that comes across clearly throughout A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime bodes well for a future project, though, and in the meantime this has certainly got its moments of awe-inspiring bombast.

Recommended tracks: Frostpalace Gloaming Respite, “Desperately Ablaze, from the Lowest Lair,” A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime
You may also like: Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate, Heaving Earth, Baring Teeth, Cosmic Putrefaction, Aeviterne, Abyssal, Suffering Hour, Ars Magna Umbrae, Replicant, Zhrine, Haar, Qrixkuor
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Vertebra Atlantis is:
– R.R. (vocals, drums)
– G.S. (guitars (rhythm))
– G.G. (guitars, vocals, keyboards, bass)