Beats and yelling: Oraculum

Hybris Divina
Out 9^th January on Invictus Productions

Dark, imposing death metal reaches for a sharp juxtaposition between the superhuman and the horrendously surreal. The bludgeoning simplicity of early Bolt Thrower, siren wailing, toneless guitar leads and all, is elevated to a place of epical grimness via a sharp melodic flair that, although hardly complex or original, is delivered with a conviction and intention that marks this release out from garden variety cavernous death metal.

The production is strikingly bottom heavy, placing an enormous weight on the listener’s shoulders. Drums are submersed at the low end, the rhythmic pulses and the occasional disruptive fill being felt rather than perceived. Their guiding influence over the album is ever present but peripheral, an invisible hand manipulating the flow of each piece. The bass ridden guitar tone dominates the mix, filling out the sound with an enormous, dirge ridden soundscape of militaristic power, a mystically distant hostility as opposed to an all too human visceral aggression. Reverb drenched guitar leads offset all this low end with striking statements of power that earn their austere packaging within scant note handfuls through their dominance over the music, and the striking contrast they form with the throbbing riffs beneath. Vocals are a strained, half-clean hardcore derived bark. A technique that is becoming increasingly common (a sign of distortion fatigue?), but here they work in the music’s favour as if to emphasise an interplay between human endeavour and divine indifference.

Despite moments of raucous speed, Oraculum are strikingly tentative in how they pace these tracks out, making the flow torturous rather than chaotic. The blitzkrieg of buzzing guitar noise is forever frustrated in its momentum by the relentless patience of the drums as they frequently pull back to a more ponderous marching tempo or else purposeful doom segments. Each central theme is simple yet characterful, weaving a thread between amoral power, gothic splendour, and a more sadistic intention signposted by choppier accents and licks. Worked through this is an undeniably sorrowful poise which works as commentary on the central, macro level violence of each piece.

The more deliberate pacing allows Oraculum to build purpose into each crescendo, creating a clear centrepiece to each track that is slowly worked up to, and feels more rewarding as a result. A moment of climax reached, the music is then released from its chains and allowed to cascade out in tumultuous bursts of relentless, muscular death metal. A pre-1990 vintage granted more power and significance thanks to the modern, but undeniably characterful mix, alongside Oraculum’s clear penchant for creating a sense of occasion, reaching back to the epics of antiquity to convey a sense of unknowable mysticism.