Has it really been 15 years since Colorado’s Excommunion released Superion? I reviewed the album for digitalmetal, and the review has been lost on the mists of time, but I recall really liking it. The two members (Christbutcher- bass/vocals and less creatively named Kyle Spanswick- guitars/vocals) have since blown up in Nightbringer, releasing 5 fine albums, but they have resurrected Excommunion, and released a long awaited second album on Dark Descent no less- I’m not sure there could be a more perfect fit.
Basically, Thronosis is a Dark Descent death metal album personified. It’s the churning, cavernous, miasmal sometimes doomy sound that the bands early releases like Corpsessed, Anhedonist, Auroch, Maveth, Krypts, Vorum, Father Befouled and others also perfected. It’s that Immolation/Incantation inspired, darkly twisting, atonal lurching sound that Dark Descent has simply locked into got almost a monopoly on.
The 4 songs, (and I’m purely going 0ff memory here) are a little murkier than the cleaner, more Morbid Angel -ish hues of Superion, but still are full of big, doomy crawls as the debut was. The vocals are the genre tried and true cavernous bellows, and there is no real solos or leads. From opener “Twilight of Eschaton” to wonderfully titled, blistering closer “Blessed Is the Epoch of Darkness and Strife”, the material is a perfect delivery of volcanic, twisty, slithering blasts and large sections of massive, slower oozes. The Likes of “Nemesis” and “World Crucifier” are simply suffocating in there craggy, discordant lopes.
It’s not memorable or stick with you as you hum it through the day, but its a claustrophobic, intensely personal listen that gets under your skin while its playing, not the way Nightbringer’s nauseating chaos does, but a more covered in grime and filth way. Thronosis wont be a really lauded or hailed comeback/reunion, but boy does it blow most of the other big name ones away.
The only downside is that the album is only 28 minutes long. The 4 song are lengthy, but this feels more like an EP. That said, 28 minutes might be all you can take of this sort of seeping, bludgeoning chaos, so maybe I should be thankful. Looks like another banner year for Dark Descent…..
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Good ol’ Christbutcher.
on May 15th, 2017 at 21:5828 minutes used to be a full album back in the day before bands starting trying to use up all the time on a CD.the perfect length,just like the last weapon lp was.
on May 16th, 2017 at 06:59