My love for French Black/Death Metal is not a secret by this point. Will Fall of Seraphs grow on me like a slimy fungus? I mean, 2022 has turned out to be quite the year for grimy, bleak Metal. From Dust to Creation sees Fall of Seraphs Blackened/Death machine blasting like there’s no tomorrow or the day after… two weeks later… you get the idea.

Everything starts with “The Eradication Dogma” which isn’t a total blasterpiece, it chugs at times and is blow torch fast at others, and they start to show their influences with track two “Mirror of Transcendence” which has a huge Morbid Angel-esq opening riff and as I listen to it, I can’t really pick out a part so far that I’m just like “holy fucking shit!” It’s not an album that has those moments that can be picked out and if I had to pick a standout track, I’d have to say “Fire Path of Punishment” which has a very cool moment around 1.09 that starts out the fantastic use of different tempos, allowing the song to breathe, which is always a welcome change. I also enjoyed the title track which starts with a slow rumble that switches to a blasting explosion. Do I like it? Yes, it is a good, very solid French Black/Death Metal release. I am liking this fungus.

So now it’s conclusion time! While Fall of Seraphs isn’t re-inventing the Black/Death Metal wheel, they have a good foot in the door and that’s what matters. This is the part where I say, “for fans of” and then pull out a laundry list of sound-alike or what have you, and so I do the same in this instance, with caution.Fall of Seraphs isn’t easy to buttonhole (bet you never expected that word), on the one hand, there’s Angelcorpse, Morbid Angel, and Vital Remains in there, the meat and potato of Death Metal. But also, there’s the discipline of Black Metal, where the atmosphere is created within the sonic chaos, and that is where the savage restraint of Aldaraan, early Deathspell Omega, even showing Swedish and Norwegian influences.

If all that sounds like your pot of gruesome, nasty Metal then Fall of Seraphs should be in your collection.

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