Phrenelith - cavernous death metal savagery for this Friday

Phrenelith

Ashen Womb Dark

Descent Records / Me Saco Un Ojo Records

7 February 2025

One possible way of thinking of these Danish purveyors of ominous, savage sounds is to consider this as an exercise in claustrophobic death metal, with minimal distractions or melodies, just straight-to-the-point ultra-heaviness. This is not melodic, and if you judge the album based on melodies, this is easily a 1 or 2 out of ten. Really, we didn't come here for melodies. We came here for the cavernous. That's pretty much the short and long of it. For example, the vocals are low growling, no singing, screeching, howling, upper-range extreme vocals, none of that, really, pretty much indecipherable, percussive low growling that sounds in some ways like a part of the rhythm, sometimes adjacent to the drumming patterns or rhythm riffs. The drummer puts on a clinic! Those are pretty awesome speeds. The guitar playing is a combination of low-tuned, often blazing, black and death metal riffs. If you listen closely, you will find the music in the barrage, but it is possible that some listeners will never find the music within the noise. If you don’t, that’s ok, that’s the way it goes sometimes. On the other hand, the band started more than ten years ago, and they knew what they were doing from the beginning with this particular subgenre, and they have experience in other brutal bands. It is music for a tiny demographic within an already small audience.

https://www.facebook.com/phrenelith