Released By: Dark Adversary Records
Release date: Available now
Genre: Black Metal
Lineup:
Azgorh
Balam
Tracklisting:
1.o From Old Mountains to Lost Seas
2.0 Drink the Blood of the Sun (Varcolaci Awakens)
3.0 Below the Horizon He Stalks
4.0 From the Abyss
5.0 Secrets of the Darkest Spells
6.0 Cursed Voyage
7.0 Apparitions in the Distant Woodlands
8.0 Rise! Unser Stans Mighty Horns
9.0 The Return of the Medieval Sorrow
10.0 Despoiler of the World We Know
11.0 Sic Itur Ad Astra
12.0 The Inverted Ascension
13.o Sinking into the Void
Since the release of a handful of demos in 2003, Australian Black Metallers DROWNING THE LIGHT have been flying the CVLT flag and making huge waves throughout the underground scene across the globe. As well as becoming one of the most respected bands in the genre, they have also been one of the busiest with a discography of full albums, E.P’s, demos, cassettes, compilations and splits that dwarfs most bands twice their age. I will not pretend to have heard them all, though I have heard quite a few.
Throughout the huge amount of music released by this band they have stuck to a pretty tried and true Black Metal formula filled with doom, gloom and misery and much more akin to the traditional sound of the genres earlier days, rather than the more modernized, toned down and slightly commercialized sound that a lot of today’s Black Metal utilizes. For their thirteenth full-length release, DROWNING THE LIGHT have hit somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. There is still plenty of the raw, dirty sound that the band is better known for and make no mistake…the lyrical content is as dark and bleak as ever, but FROM THE ABYSS also has a very epic, atmospheric feeling to it, and even the slightest hint of a more melodic structure across the board. The addition of small segments of old-timey folk music also adds a new layer of depth for long-time listeners discuss.
Fans of the band’s rawness and underground feel shouldn’t be disheartened though, as these slight changes are more cosmetic than anything else and those that enjoyed the slightly more progressive feel of the band’s 2001 release OCEANS OF ETERNITY will know what to expect here. The high point of the album as a whole is the savage, unrelenting vocals of Azgorh, who for the most part runs DROWNING THE LIGHT as a one-man-band, with the assistance of Balam from another well respected underground Black Metal act PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS.
2015 has already been a massive year for Black Metal in general, and there are quite a few high profile releases from the genre due in the coming months, but fans of this style of music should definitely make sure not to let FROM THE ABYSS pass them by. Yet another excellent release in the massive discography of DROWNING THE LIGHT and one that should more than please long time fans, but could also possibly draw in a whole new market.
Written by ZeeZee Dawson
Ratings: ZeeZee 8/10
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