A sense of hopelessness and despair is something that permeates many of the different themes that are explored throughout the vast underground network of metal music, yet that are, obviously, a few veins that are more adept at bringing those concepts to life than others. Out of all of them, it's when black metal and doom mix together that we get some of the bleakest metal that can possibly be spawned. Not often enough is the sound given the justice that it deserves for one reason or another, but it's on occasion that we do see a name come around that delivers on what the sound is able to be in all of its maddening view of oblivion. I figured it wouldn't be until the impending Lightless album that I would come across anything that could scratch the itch for such material, but it's here with Rites of Regress that all the right boxes are being checked off constantly.
The most compelling works of black-doom are almost always ones that are immeasurably dense, hostile from the very get-go, and voracious on a scale that can only be found in the depths of the underground. It makes for a particularly potent blend when you bring it together with very few things able to be accurately compared, but it's the kind of concoction that not many are able to pull off. When one does come around though, it feels as though darkness has never had better representation. Four immense tracks spanning a half hour dirge of pure suffocation where not even the tiniest slivers of fleeting light can filter in, "Dust" is the debut from Rites of Regress that shows immediately that this is not an act that is playing around in the slightest. Whether it comes in the form of utterly oppressive atmospheres or the sudden pummeling of riffs that can really feel unexpected in such a dark, dense creation, Rites of Regress clearly held nothing back for their first effort. This is not some escapism from reality for cathartic release, but, rather, a journey into the deepest depths of depravity with truly malicious intentions such that no one is left alive with naught but "Dust" remaining.
Titanic in every form and no less than compelling from the first few seconds, Rites of Regress made damn sure that their entrance was not something that listeners would be able to easily shirk off. The depths of black-doom metal are always something that needs a strong soul in order to investigate and endure with few able to come out on top. Clearly, those of Rites of Regress know precisely how to handle such a volatile concoction.
LISTEN to "Dust" on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Rites of Regress on Facebook here.
No comments:
Post a Comment