Style: dissonant black metal, blackened death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Deathspell Omega, The Ruins of Beverast, Ulcerate
Country: Minnesota, United States
Release date: 29 March 2024
As great as black metal tends to be, it always seems to come up short against my love for death metal. Ever since my first forays into the extreme metal subgenres, the pulverizing riffage and guttural vocals of death metal have just always been more enticing, each riff I hear an affirmation of my love for the genre. Black metal had no such luck. I was always aware of the subgenre, of course, but it has taken me years to form a genuine appreciation of it. A large portion of that development is thanks to blackened death metal acts like Behemoth and Skeletonwitch who bridged the gap for me. To this day I can’t help but appreciate some good blackened death metal. Enter Sacrificial Vein.
Combining an avant-garde approach to black metal similar to that of Deathspell Omega with the dissonant flavorings of bands like Ulcerate, the sound that Sacrificial Vein achieve on their debut output Black Terror Genesis is one of stifling heaviness and pummeling atmosphere. Bristlingly distorted guitars weave their way through blistering tremolo riffage and downtrodden chord work to tense and dreadful refrains where the stellar sound design and production really shines through. The drums follow suit, blasting along in the faster sections and landing with a satisfying heft when nuance fails. Just listen to the drums on the opening track “The Blood of the Wicked Shall Entomb the Earth,” and you’ll know what I mean. Those bad boys are meaty.
And despite how great the instrumentals on Black Terror Genesis may be, they are still overshadowed by an absolutely insane vocal performance. Ranging from the shrillest of blackened highs to the dankest and swampiest of lows, the vocals on display run the gamut of human capability. Oftentimes they completely devolve into the stuff you’d hear watching a horror movie rather than listening to death metal, and they are all the more engrossing for it. The track “Throne of Perversion” is perhaps the best example of this which sees vocals increasingly interrupted by bouts of manic laughter which then become a tensile musical device of their own, making the slinky riffage that comes after all the more memorable.
A notable and nearly constant element of Sacrificial Vein’s sound which I’ve haven’t yet discussed is its sound design. Be it the overdriven screams that speckle “Throne of Perversion,” the screeching, yet melodic electronic noise that adorns “Rites of Malignancy,” or the truly unnerving first section of the closer “Nil,” there is always some form of earcandy to satisfy the attentive listener. On the tracks already mentioned, Sacrificial Vein strikes a stellar balance between their atmospherics and their intrigue, but that balance slips on the more purely ambient tracks like “Apparition” and “Abjection” which I struggle to see as anything more than atmospheric padding. Perhaps that’s just my death metal brain acting up though.
Black Terror Genesis is black metal that seems to have been tailor-made for me to enjoy thanks to its hammering, yet clear production and dissonant bent. The grandeur it delivers on tracks like “Throne of Perversion,” “Cruciatum Aeternum,” and “Nil,” get my head moving, yet there are countless moments refined and complex enough to make that dissonant tag seem like it’s not just for show. With each listen, I find something new to like about Black Terror Genesis. I’m being conservative with my score, but I know this album has room to grow. Don’t be surprised if you see this on my end of year lists.
Recommended tracks: Throne of Perversion, Cruciatum Aeternum
You may also like: Dodecahedron, Warforged, Convulsing
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Total Dissonance Worship – Bandcamp | Facebook
Sacrificial Vein is:
– JU (Guitar, Bass, Composition)
– Elegist (Vocals, Lyrics)
– Matthew Paulazzo (Drums)
– Elliot Merriman (Sound Design/Fx, Mixing, Mastering)
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