Hailing from Norway, long standing death-metallers Execration are back with their latest offering ‘Return to the Void’. I was not much aware of the band’s earlier works. So before listening to their latest album, I sat down to listen to their discography, especially ‘Morbid Dimensions’. Their sound can be described as an alloy of Black and Doom metal seated deep in the realms of old school death metal.
‘Return to the Void’ is nothing short of pure intensity and aggression. Immense musical craftsmanship is evident throughout the album. The band’s sound on this album seems to have been shifted more towards traditional old school black and death metal styles. A few seconds into the opener “Eternal Recurrence”, and the same is apparent. The listener is directly thrown in an inferno of fire spewing riffs and a very black metal-esqe drumming.
[metalwani_content_ad]
“Hammers of Vulcan” and “Necrocosm” open the gates to somewhat proggy dimensions of the album. Some great transitions between traditional old school and progressive death can be heard. Apart from the pure death vocals, major portions of “Cephalic transitions” and “Unicursal Horrorscope” would well qualify for a raw black metal track.
However, incorporated throughout all these tracks are some great tempo and mood changes, which would put the listener in a state of psychedelic haze, while a sudden shift to full assault is bound to break the trance and throw them into a head banging frenzy. Deep into the album, it is evident that it would largely cater to the lovers of old school death metal sound and the band are bound to receive immense appreciation from them.
The album consists of seven tracks and two interludes. While there would be no shortcomings to any of the tracks individually, as an album it might get quite monotonous past midway and traversing towards the end. Also, the sound is not something entirely evolutionary and we have definitely seen many other bands infuse elements of death, black, doom and prog. However, with that being said, its absolutely something the band would have well thought of and. in fact would. be proud of for sticking to their roots and delivering a crushing album nonetheless.
‘Return to the Void’ is an intense, aggressive old school death metal attack. Entwined with influences across genres, Execration have crafted an album to be proud of. However, among all the innovation evident in Metal today, time will tell if this album stands out and finds its own page in the books of the remembered.