Style: progressive death metal, blackened death metal, deathgaze (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Kardashev, Fallujah, Ne Obliviscaris
Country: California, United States
Release date: 7 March 2025
Allow me to begin this review with an apology. When I reviewed Dawn of Ouroboros’s last output Velvet Incandescence back in 2023, I gave it a 4/10, and that score remains the most egregious underrating of any review I’ve written for The Progressive Subway. I think I was just disappointed with how their sophomore output stacked up against their debut, but with some time between my review and subsequent listens, I ended up finding Velvet Incandescence an actually decent album; sure the production had its fair share of flaws and the compositions could have been a bit more elegant, but the album had an array of melodic hooks that held my attention through my extensive listens. So when I saw another release from Dawn of Ouroboros, I knew it could be a twofold chance for redemption: a chance for the band at a higher score and a chance for me to write a review that does their album justice. So how does Bioluminescence fare?
From the first notes of the title track and opener, one thing is clear—and it’s the production. Dissonant guitar riffage rings out as a wicked blast beat constantly shifts in and about itself and walls of ambient reverb wash over the listener, but nothing gets lost to my ears. When Chelsea Murphy’s harsh vocals enter, they too are crystal clear, adding a crisp heaviness to the cathartic fretwork. The production especially stands out on tracks like “Poseidon’s Hymn” and “Dueling Sunsets” where electronic and symphonic elements join the fray without once getting muddy; tambourine even gets thrown in there once or twice. If I were to change just one thing about this album’s mix and master, I’d have simply widened its dynamic range. For an album that vacillates between such delicate and bludgeoning moments, it shouldn’t be limited to such a small range of volumes. Still, Bioluminescence alleviates my biggest criticism of its predecessor within just a few notes.
Musically, Bioluminescence sits in a similar space to Velvet Incandescence with its deathgaze sound, to use a term coined by Kardashev. And Kardashev remains one of the most apt comparisons for Dawn of Ouroboros thanks to the band’s consistently propulsive drumming, atmosphere-focused guitarwork, and duality of harsh and clean vocals. When individual elements do rise from the core sound, like during the solos on “Nebulae,” the moment is memorable but nothing to write home about. Bioluminescence is music focused on atmosphere, not technicality, and its appeal is in its texture and tension.
In nearly all aspects, Bioluminescence is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor, but it does fall into one familiar trapping: the clean vocals are poorly enunciated to the point of comedy, and the track “Slipping Burgundy” is the worst offender by far. As soon as one presses play, they are bombarded by a perversion of the English language as every vowel shape becomes some form of “ah” or “uh” regardless of the word. I’ve seen memes making fun of indie vocalists by calling their unique inflections “singing in cursive,” but if an indie vocalist sings in cursive, Murphy sings in hieroglyphics. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt; maybe she needed an emergency root canal the same day that they’d booked the studio for vocal sessions, or maybe Murphy is the namesake Ouroboros attempting to sing around the tail in her mouth. Regardless, the cleans take songs like “Slipping Burgundy” and the title track and render what could have been impactful moments into unadulterated comedy. What’s even more confounding is that Murphy does occasionally deliver well enunciated cleans, like towards the end of “Dueling Sunsets” where her belts in conjunction with the song’s climax create an album highlight. Blessedly, Bioluminescence contains just little enough of Murphy’s strange cleans for me to still give this a positive score in good conscience.
For an album where no individual element stands out, the compositions and production must do the heavy lifting, and Dawn of Ouroboros has delivered the goods in those departments. I do struggle to recall more than a few key moments even after my several listens, but I fear that’s more of a failing of “deathgaze” than it is of Dawn of Ouroboros as a band. If you’re a fan of Fallujah and Kardashev, I fully recommend Bioluminescence; and Chelsea Murphy, if you’re reading this, sorry for the jokes.
Recommended tracks: Dueling Sunsets, Bioluminescence
You may also like: Dessiderium, Serein, Vintersea, Caelestra
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Dawn of Ouroboros is:
– Tony Thomas (guitars, keyboards)
– Chelsea Murphy (vocals)
– Ian Baker (guitars)
– Chris Stropoli (drums)
0 Comments