The Glorious Dead is back again.
After a first life in 2006 that yielded an EP, T.J. Humlinski (guitar/vocals, Feast Eternal) and Marty Rytkonen (guitar, Charnel Valley) revived the band in 2017. Accompanied by Chris Fulton (drums) and Chris Boris (bass, Pan), the musicians signed to Bindrune Recordings announce the release of Cemetery Paths in 2023.
Opening with Semita Cineris, the band’s soothing clean-sounding tones are barely disturbed by those vintage keyboards, but tranquility doesn’t last as it’s crushed by Horizons of Ash and its aggressive riffs. Raw vocal parts are also on the program, perfectly complementing the band’s devastatingly catchy Death Metal, which paces itself with regular accelerations, taking us back to Gag on Viscera and its oppressive Old School influences, especially on ominous leads. Effective riffs appear again on Purulent Forms, with its thick drum parts constantly flooding us with solid double kick, which perfectly accompanies the musicians’ obvious rage. Daylight Graves unveils a slower, more heady rhythmic pattern, allowing dissonant riffs to take their place between two explosive visceral accelerations, before returning to a frantic pace on the morbid Cadaver Within and its sharp harmonics perfectly blended with the fast jerky approach. The band keeps its savagery on Malefic Sepsis, with dark, occult hypnotic leads contrasting with the abrasive basis on which it relies to break necks, as on Dragging the Dead, which plays on murky dissonance to shade its striking force and most direct riffs with heavy tones. Living Rot, the next track, offers some rocky groove to which the band grafts its airy melodies, offering a more accessible approach before returning to a faster, rawer rhythm on Corpse of the King. There’s no downtime on this abrasive track, with its chopped, sometimes dissonant riffs, but there is on Cemetery Path, with its icy introduction with some rain and a few steps, before a howl invokes more impressive sounds. A quieter break gives us another chance to breathe, injecting some Doom influences in the process, before Semita Pulveris sinks us into a ritualistic universe thanks to a haunting, melancholy slowness in which guitars naturally dance.
Between raw Death Metal and more soothing parts, The Glorious Dead find its balance by forging solid riffs to make Cemetery Paths a monolith of savage aggression, but which contains a few sweets.
85/100