Haliphron strikes out.
Just over a year after their debut album, Marloes Voskuil (vocals, ex-Izegrim), Ramon Ploeg (guitar, Bleeding Gods, ex-Debauchery), Jessica Otten (bass, Bleeding Gods, Dictated, live for Asagraum and Gaerea) and Jeroen Wechgelaer (guitar, ex-Izegrim), joined by Paul Beltman (drums, Inkarnation, Weapons to Hunt, ex-Sinister), unveil Anatomy of Darkness, their second studio album, illustrated by Dimitris Tzortzis (Bleeding Gods, Euphrosyne, On Thorns I Lay… ).
David Gutierrez Rojas (keyboards/backing vocals, Bleeding Gods, ex-Kingfisher Sky) is also credited.
The album kicks off in anguish with Opus Addicere, a dark but relatively melodic introduction that carries us into Silent Escape, where the riffs first show themselves to be majestic before returning to pure aggression, creating solid jerky patterns to accommodate the vociferations. A ferocious double kick accompanies the lead parts, but the band returns to a more ethereal approach on the choruses before giving way to the epic soaring of Feasting on Flesh, where the instrumental immediately becomes very aggressive again, even when the solo brings its piercing Heavy touches. Black Star quickly follows with an oppressive march punctuated by prominent vocal parts and motivating patterns topped by keyboards, before giving us a brief moment’s respite with Buried Truth’s introductive sample. The excerpt, about human remains, is quickly overtaken by a melancholy mix that even dares a touch of clear backing vocals between the various screams and effective riffs, but the track really shifts towards heaviness when the two voices cooperate before letting us loose on Double or Nothing, where the surge starts all over again. The Thrash/Death influences retain the abrasive edge of the rhythm, which becomes softer with the keyboards and lyrical vocals, before the band switches to an icy groove on Epitome of Perfection, a composition where the rhythm section comes to the fore, but which still lets the screams and harmonics lacerate us. A siren sounds from time to time, announcing the moshparts, but the band already follows up with Art of the Blade, where a voice tempers the arrival of the riffs, letting the guitars mingle with the keyboards to ensure permanently soaring tones. The vocalist roars one last time, then leaves us with the first moments of the impressive Anatomy of Darkness, where the orchestrations sublimate a devastating rhythm, but also some sampled vocals and worked leads to close the album in beauty.
With Anatomy of Darkness, Haliphron offers us a second demonstration of its mastery of violence and beauty. The keyboards give the combo’s riffs a very special flavor that has nothing to envy their peers, and which can be devastating or, on the contrary, temper the atmosphere when necessary.
90/100