Kardashev unveils their new album.
Formed in 2012 in the United States, the band composed of Mark Garrett (vocals, NeverBreath, Viraemia), Nico Mirolla (guitar, NeverBreath), Alex Rieth (bass) and Sean Lang (drums, NeverBreath, First Reign) announce the release of Liminal Rite in 2022, through Metal Blade Records.
The album starts with The Approaching of Atonement, a short and very calm composition that puts us in this haunting universe with a voice that will finally let us go on the dissonant Silvered Shadows and its oppressive atmosphere. Some technical hints can be heard in the guitar and bass parts before bewitching clean vocals come to create a soothing atmosphere. It will be broken by massive screams, then the contrast will be severe by letting Prog influences take over, leading us to Apparition in Candlelight, a track that immediately becomes very violent. The raw rage is completed by soaring melodies that drown us under this dark and heavy contrast before letting us breathe with this melancholic break, which will ignite the riffs again. Dissever comes to silence the raw rage before letting Lavender Calligraphy progress slowly then explode in an apocalyptic atmosphere. The track is very intense and haunting, allowing the leads to place transcendent sounds, and the composition eventually brings to life The Blinding Threshold, an eerie but very sweet interlude. The quietude will be broken cleanly by Compost Grave-Song, an abrasive, jerky and heavy composition which mixes Prog influences with burning rage. Visceral screams mix with ghostly sounds and clear vocals, then the voices unite for devastating parts before Cellar of Ghosts offers us softer influences in this unbridled rage. Once again, it is the contrast that makes the strength of the band, between these devastating blasts, these massive screams and the aerial dissonance, while Glass Phantoms shows itself immediately very dark, revealing unhealthy parts as well as majestic elements before letting A Vagabond’s Lament place us very calm Prog roots to create an atmosphere as heady as haunting. It will be necessary to wait for a moment before the rhythmic ignite, offering us a piercing intensity, then the group closes its album with Beyond the Passage of Embers, a very long composition which will present us a landscape as soft, raw, soaring, suffocating, intense and aggressive. More than eleven minutes during which the group will not cease to surprise us and to drown us in its diversified universe.
The key word of Kardashev is contrast. Why? Because with Liminal Rite, the band is as much able to place a devastating blast topped by Deathcore screams, as to soothe us with an aerial and soft Shoegaze while linking the two with smooth and catchy Prog influences. An experience.
95/100