ALBUM REVIEW: Dearth – To Crown All Befoulment

Blackened Death Metal newcomers DEARTH have unveiled their debut full length album. Out now via Sentient Ruin Laboratories.

Hammering drums and relentless riffs scathe you from the off with a visceral inferno of mighty and guttural Blackened Death Metal. Spewed vocals join the dissonant instrumental convulsions, displaying a rancid conjuration of blasphemous extremity. Bellowing with darkness, the cavernous atmospherics of the entire band are impeccable with a staunch, primal and creepy sense of mystique to their ferocious sounds. Tight drum fills skewer through the meaty and ravenous guitar riffs which are astonishingly unique and barbaric while keeping things thoroughly interesting as they warp into new territories. The vocals give a furious blend of piercing screams and guttural snarls which suit the volatile music perfectly. This is some odiously wretched Black-Death Metal that is truly tormenting.

Monolithic atmospherics packed with devastating intensity and a crushing brutality is what we get from Dearth whom use Black Metal’s dissonant side with a cavernous and doomy style of Death Metal to make some disgustingly heavy material which shall certainly appeal to fans of Grave Miasma and Dead Congregation. Rivetingly eerie and constantly rupturing into new progressions, the glistening lead guitars break through storming riffs to concoct a transcendently unnerving blend of excellence with a mighty drum performance to punctate each slab of riffs. Everything about this music reeks of death and morbid energies that are summoned to life with an utterly phenomenal performance from the whole band.

We see glimpses that almost dive into War Metal territory with such blisteringly vicious riffs and drums but Dearth keep things a bit more complex with tons of dissonance and a pretty huge sound that retains its murky darkness through bellowing low end rhythm guitars, bass and guttural vocals. Bleak and dystopian breaks are used to give the maniacal bombardments room to breathe, expanding on the thick and unpredictable atmospherics even further. Until the end of the album we see this enticing blend of ambience and punishing aggression, used in perfect harmony to give a distinguished and memorable performance that will haunt anyone who witnesses it.

Dripping in macabre mystique and fuelled by a burning flame of disdain, Dearth deliver some of the most severe and masterfully corrupt Black-Death Metal on this debut that is a pungent opus of blasphemous, cavernous and otherworldly Extreme Metal. An utterly tremendous debut record from a band with the capability to conquer. -9/10