Adversvm marches again.
Formed in 2015, the German band comprising Sascha Borchard (guitar/vocals), Jessica Borchard (bass), Fabian Guschlbauer (guitar, Apophis, Dawn of Dreams), Jörg Uken (drums, Temple of Dread, Crown of Grief, ex-Nightfall) and Don Zaros (keyboards, Evoken, Dimentianon) announce the release of Vama Marga, their third album, via Moribund Records.
After the enchanting tones developed on Exordium, the opening track, the band presents Emanation, which immediately weighs down the atmosphere with massive saturation and ominous orchestrations. Cavernous vocal parts join the crushing, throbbing march of this long, ponderous composition, which uses majestic keyboards to accentuate its darkness, before the band suddenly accelerates on Sinistrum, offering a blast-based opening before slowness returns to reign over the rhythm. Mysterious elements are also fed by jerky patterns that regularly accelerate before exposing their dissonance, then Parinama offers us a moment of rest to place a few strange melodies before Feind crashes down on us with a majestic sound. Vocal parts darken the landscape again, but the track remains very long, and also offers a more ethereal break before saturation returns to mingle with these ambient sounds for an epic final, which fades out to make way for Antisphere and its softer approach thanks to keyboards. Quietness is again tinged with oppression on V.O.A.D. and its dissonant leads, which nonetheless perfectly fit with these heady waves of apathetic heaviness supported by soaring sonorities, but pressure drops once again to let Retrograde place electronic tones under a melancholic melody. Vindex then welcomes the saturated riffs, with a strong emphasis on ominous keyboards, sometimes complemented by heavy or frightening vocal parts that regularly appear between the different rhythms, leading to a stifling final, followed by Mölingssken, which closes the album with the heady modern tones that have become habitual.
Adversvm is capable of offering both throbbing, pachydermic riffs and more modern, airy tones, making Vama Marga totally unpredictable and oppressive, in a good way.
85/100