Sepulchral Curse adds another stone to its morbid edifice.
After one album and four EPs, the Finnish band featuring Kari Kankaanpää (vocals, ex-Solothus, ex-Yawning Void), Jaakko Riihimäki (guitar, ex-Gladenfold), Niilas Nissilä (bass/vocals, Kaikkeuden Hauta), Aleksi Luukka (guitar, ex-Solothus, ex-Yawning Void) and Johannes Rantala (drums, ex-Yawning Void) celebrate their tenth anniversary with the release of Abhorrent Dimensions, their second album, on Transcending Obscurity Records.
Onward the Legions begin by flooding us with a wave of blast coupled with dark riffs and thick howls. The few piercing harmonics emerging from the torrent of dissonance lend a chaotic flavor to the composition, which nonetheless slows down to highlight its heady melodies before crushing us again before The Serpents of Uncreation locks us in between its steady strikes, overlaid with chaotic melodies. The arrival of vocals only adds to the oppression, then finally exploding before the tortured lead parts, followed by Among the Wretched Columns, which unveils its impressive tones, completed with sharp harmonics and savage vociferations. Leads are even more jerky than before, leading us into the soothing introduction of Graveyard Lanterns, which eventually develops a slower and more haunting approach to the funereal tones before letting the double kick once again reign in this devastated landscape. The unholy energy resurfaces on Stagnant Waters, unleashing all the instruments with a highly aggressive approach to which the vocalist adds his impressive touch, while lead parts are strangely very melodic under the rhythmic’s fury that leave us no respite before Burial of Souls summons all the darkest and most disturbing elements to explode in a tornado of scathing icy sonorities. A strangely quiet break splits the track in two, but the sound ignites again to give way to the massive final Through Abhorrent Dimensions, an ultimate composition that doesn’t hesitate to use its Old School roots to offer a strong contrast with the more atmospheric, intoxicating parts before joining them for a last assault.
Sepulchral Curse does its job with a master’s hand, giving Abhorrent Dimensions all the heaviness, darkness and savagery it needs. The band has found its path, and perfectly explores it.
95/100