Style: dissonant death metal, progressive death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Blood Incantation
Country: Slovenia
Release date: 13 September 2024
I review a lot of dissonant death metal because of my love of unsettling music; eschew tonal centers and simplistic rhythms. Yet despite its sheer abnormality in the grand scheme of music that draws me toward it, it’s for the most part largely similar within the niche for better or for worse. Given that I love the base style, the ease of consistently finding solid bands is a blessing; however, my reviews become challenging to write as I’ve exhausted every phrase possible to describe a dissonant death metal album over the past half year or so. After so many disso/tech reviews, I’m running out of ways to say that skronky guitar noodles turn me on.
Slovenia’s Siderean released a promising debut, but its unpointed songwriting hurt replayability. Even the most inscrutable stuff needs a hook to snag my consciousness. Spilling the Astral Chalice builds on the strengths of Lost on Void’s Horizon, particularly the performances and the production which is nearly flawless with a great emphasis on the clacking bass of Lovro Babič—his playing helps me draw a clear comparison between Siderean and the Swiss Anachronism. The bass propels Spilling the Astral Chalice, Babič’s pops, winding licks, and phat tone taking up equal space in the mix and writing as both guitarists combined, neither of whom is a slouch. Matija Dolinar and David Kocmur writhe around in tandem, taking turns with atmospheric trems and off-kilter rhythmic chugging. The guitar tones and style fit in with the dissodeath pack, but they’re tremendous players who provide highlights like the solos I can only describe as “slimy” (2:25 in “The Sacred Sea,” 6:00 in “Visions”).
Rounding out the instrumentalists, Darian Kocmur is a beastly drummer with a perfect ability to switch between blast beats and mammoth, space-filling leads. He injects a significant amount of kineticism into a style which can often get bogged down in its headiness. Finally, Jan Brišar is a madman on the mic, his wails remarkably unnerving like an animal howling in the woods at night. Together, Siderean are fantastic performers who incorporate a slick mix of dissonant atmospheres and more speedy technicality (and I personally believe too many dissodeath bands have forgotten the latter part in recent years). Everything is primed for Spilling the Astral Chalice to be yet another grand slam death metal release for ‘24.
Yet despite performances getting tighter and production quality increasing substantially, Siderean still lack a bit of extra oomph on the songwriting front. I love that the band attempt dynamic, sweeping epics like “To Build Ruins,” but the movements feel too organic causing the tracks to progress around without clear purpose, and, more importantly, the balance between atmosphere and technicality is unbalanced. While I prefer their more astringent death metal side, they’re too competent at atmosphere building (see “Emerald Age”) to transition away from it without allowing proper development. Often they’ll slow down the metal, but they switch back too quickly and rather than basking in the atmosphere, it comes across as disjointed. Finally, Spilling the Astral Chalice is a tad homogeneous in nature, largely coming across as plain old dissodeath—dissodeath done very well, mind you, but just dissodeath nonetheless.
In only three years, Siderean have clearly upped their game, but their weakness remains. Their free-flowing songwriting needs to become a bit more pointed to have any chance to stand apart from the ever-growing stream of weirdo death metal releases I review. I enjoyed listening to Spilling the Astral Chalice, but I anticipate little will stick with me, regretfully. Siderean have the potential to be stars in the scene, pun intended.
Recommended tracks: Emerald Age, Forces
You may also like: Anachronism, Vertebrae Atlantis, Ceremony of Silence, Unsouling
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Edged Circle Productions – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Siderean is:
– Lovro Babič (bass)
– Darian Kocmur (drums)
– Matija Dolinar (guitars)
– David Kocmur (guitars)
– Jan Brišar (vocals)
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