Fatal Embrace comes back to life.
Created in 1992 in Sweden, the band released two demos and one album before ceasing its activity in 1998. The resurrection was sealed in 2016, but Henric Serholt (vocals), Christian Silver (drums), Andreas Johansson (guitar), Manne Engström (guitar) and John Silver (bass) waited 2022 to unveil new material, followed by Manifestum Infernalis, their second album, on Black Lion Records.
The band immediately attacks with Empyreal Doom, a first track with an as aggressive as dark and melodic sound. Haunting riffs contrast with massive drums and raging screams just like on The Black Oath which allows us a short moment of respite on its introduction before letting its abrasive melancholy slowly crush us. Heady melodies explode when the rhythmic accelerates, then slow down again to bewitch us, waiting to lacerate us again, then finally letting Wolves Of Golgotha bring a touch of disturbing darkness with a softer clean sound. Quietness doesn’t last, because whether the track remains slow thanks to soaring Doom influences, we’ll find a heavy, weighing and unhealthy saturation mixing intense tones with the ambient apocalypse, which leads us to Prometheus’ Sermon and its solemn atmosphere. The track will also suddenly speed up to let its violent roots express themselves with wild screams and sometimes jerky riffs before the short Call Of The Dark allows us a real break. The composition mixes epic and dark elements to gradually lead us to Eyes of Oak, which quickly reveals all its intensity via dissonant and haunting sounds before letting the occult Black Metal influences unleash themselves. The alternation between slowness and more lively parts gives this long track a perfect, which gives way to Sign Of The Pentagram and its Old School approach of the band’s heady violence. We will still have some more melancholic parts, especially this aerial final which slowly melts in the nothingness before Deus Mali comes to reveal its catchy riffs in company of some heady ambient tonalities. The mix between the abrasive basis and the soaring guitars remains extremely effective, just like on Rot, the last track, which will alternate between majestic slowness and explosions of morbid rage before linking the two in a flow of raw melancholy to close the album.
The resurrection of Fatal Embrace has brought this abrasive mix of rage and catchy melancholy back to life. Manifestum Infernalis is an intense album that knows how to sail between all its influences to forge a unique and striking identity.
90/100