Though I reviewed the debut, Voidgazer, from this discordant death metal Texas duo back in 2021, I missed the follow-up, in 2022, Demiurge.

What I do remember about the debut though was, while the churning Incantation-y murk was good stuff, the duo was really at their best when delivering more lumbering, grooving controlled riffs. And luckily on From Beyond, there is a lot more emphasis on that. (I can’t speak for Demiurge).

As with the prior two efforts, From Beyond is a short 24-minute affair, with all 9 songs under 3 minutes, but as I mentioned, the short sharp stabs are more focused on massive slower riffs, though there is still plenty of churning, icky, dissonant Incantation/Dark Descent styled death metal (i.e the start of “Harbinger of Dissolution”, “Aeon”, “Archon”). 

But every song has some sort of huge, sickly, doomy moment such as the ones in “Resurrected Abominations”, “Those Who Obey”, “The Temple Fires” and “The Light of Long-Dead Stars” (well all 9 tracks really). And they all hit really hard, standing out amid their respective blasting tracks. 

The production is a little cleaner than some of their murkier, muddier peers (Dodecahedron, Nightmarer, Altarage), but the duo’s transformation into a more doom/death band looks to be almost complete, and I’m here for it.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments