Sylvatica confirms its comeback with a third album.
Just two years after their previous opus, Jardén Schlesinger (guitar/vocals, Mother of All, ex-Satanic Assault Division), Thomas Haxen (bass, Destabilizer, Horned Almighty, ex-Satanic Assault Division), Jacques Harm Brandt Hauge (drums, Horned Almighty, Temple of Scorn, ex-Glorior Belli) and Christian Christiansen (guitar, Trold, ex-Satanic Assault Division) announce the release of Cadaver Synod, out now via Target Records and Mighty Music.
The album kicks off with Strife, which largely showcases Folk influences before adding Old School Death Metal’s basics. Keyboards’ driving melodies contrast with the raw sound and rocky screams, but throbbing leads unite them before Papa Poltergeist reveals more ominous sounds. The riffs are also more aggressive, but they’re quickly soothed by the dark heady atmosphere and catchy melodies, leading us to Titivillus and its clean-sounding introduction, ablaze with saturation and heady orchestrations. Choirs suddenly appear, making the track quite occult, while Pope Innocent VIII immediately places epic harmonics in its slow but catchy rhythm, making the track one of the most accessible, but also the one most likely to unite a pit of neophytes. Song of the Leper slows the band down again, letting heavy haunting tones emerge thanks to ceremonial keyboards, but aggression resurfaces with Scapegoat, whose keyboards become gloomy again. The rhythm accelerates slightly to recreate that jerky majestic ambience, before leading us into In the Eyes of God, where the vivid riffs surge forward at full speed, slowing only to offer hieratic accents to some passages before bearing down on us again. The album closes with the acoustic version of Song of the Leper, which takes on a whole new dimension while maintaining that melodic lilt.
The contrast between raw Death Metal, Symphonic Folk influences and heady melodies makes Sylvatica a unique band, mastering every part to make Cadaver Synod coherent and intriguing from start to finish.
80/100