Death Has Spoken‘s new offering is coming soon.
Entitled Elegy, this third album has earned Karol Pogorzelski (guitar/vocals), Marcin Grygoruk (guitar), Maciej Chodynicki (bass), and Mikolaj Kupczynski (drums) a deal with Meuse Music Records.
We start off with a mix of heaviness and melancholy on Within the Hills, the first track that immediately acclimates us to the band’s universe before welcoming the raw and more aggressive vocals. The rhythm also becomes more jerky, but the leads soften the choruses before launching into a particularly melodious solo, then an impressive final where the voice splits in two. However, Through Shaded Ways takes over, starting calmly, then becoming much more violent. Double kick and furious riffs accompany the vocalist’s screams, but there are still a few rare lulls and Prog touches before Beyond the Pale Horizon hypnotizes us with a much more soaring rhythm. Although tortured, the vocals also seem more haunting, which is confirmed after the soothing break where they become more suffocating again, just like the riffs, which grow stronger before returning to that misty tranquility that continues with the introduction of Solitude, where harmonics float gently in the air. The atmosphere gradually intensifies, encountering more and more melodies, then suddenly becomes heavier before disappearing without a word in favor of Murmurs, where the vocals return, making them even deeper after this well-deserved instrumental break. The song is capable of overwhelming parts, such as the devastating final, but also much lighter moments that punctuate the waves of violence, while Upon the Verge remains fairly consistent, still offering the guitars moments of freedom and the vocalist his heavy placements. The drums eventually kick into overdrive to support the solo, then Closure captures us immediately after the end of the song, letting its melancholy drift our minds away in its intoxicating Black Metal-tinged dissonance as the bass wanders gently. The tranquil flow turns into a hurricane before its final moments, followed by a cover of Agalloch‘s sublime Our Fortress is Burning… II – Bloodbirds, which retains all its majestic and melancholic dimension, while anchoring itself a little more in black metal and its most ethereal dimension.
Death Has Spoken allows itself increasingly dark touches in its melancholy, tinging its heaviness with icy sounds. Elegy brings forth its suffering and cultivates it with an intoxicating naturalness in our minds.
85/100