ALBUM REVIEW: Jade – The Pacification Of Death

Ceremonial Death Metallers JADE offer up their debut full length album, four years after a single demo. Out via Pulverised Records on November 25th. As an aside, this is also my 1000th post on this website!

Dragging itself into life with a drudging heaviness that welcomes us in without need for meandering intros, Jade deliver beautifully intense riffing with a majestic quality. Equally foreboding is the vocal delivery which is quite reminiscent of Okoi from Bølzer, which definitely lends a haunting quality to the monstrous drumming and darkened guitar riffs. Blasting energy and doomy moments interweave from the onset in a way that feels gloriously contrasted and very triumphant in atmosphere. Equally impressive to the music is the manner of conveying it with this behemoth of sound delivered with a tasteful and unsaturated production. Thankfully they don’t just rely on repetition of a cool riff, there are some great drum fills and sudden changes in pace that throw abyssal murk at you without warning, setting the record off to a very strong start.

Howling with a certain cosmic energy, there is a massively spacious execution on this record that really feels like it moves a lot of air from the speakers when played at volume. This is something a great Metal record can do to perfection when recorded well, and yet they equally retain this sepulchral grit that still feels like an underground Death Metal album. It’s an unusual balance and one that hangs precariously at times but really pays off to Jade having a unique and wholesome sound. Radiant leads glimmer through the ferocity of the rhythmic destruction, meanwhile the ghastly vocals haunt the entirety of the mix, this centre-section of the record definitely picks up the pace and yet doesn’t leave behind the atmospheric shroud cast upon the earlier or latter moments either.

Mixing such funereal moments as can be heard with their ravenous Extreme Metal sound could easily have softened to delivery yet thankfully due to the dynamic playing style pieces with spear-like precision at every moment. The way in which Jade successfully avoid faltering over the slower, more mournful sections shows their dedication and loyalty to their craft which cannot be shaken by the more experimental nature of some passages. The title of the record “The Pacification Of Death” is quite an interesting one, as it seems unnatural for a Death Metal band to ‘pacify’ death, rather revel in it. In fact the exploration of eastern mysticism seems to have become more prominent with bands of this niche which yields rather interesting results (especially in the case of Grave Miasma). All this in mind, the album delivers a rich and multi-faceted experiences across six carefully played cuts of mesmerising music that does not cut corners nor outstay its welcome.

A splendid, savage and spectral opus of truly wonderful atmospherics and diabolical Death Metal. Glistening with an aura of something beyond the stars yet firmly rooted in the fetid and earthy graves of the underground, the balance of Jade is one of triumphant and tremendously varied musical extremity that makes for a very rewarding and exciting listen.