Fossilization is back.
Joined by Z. (guitar, Blackning, ex-Chaos Inc.), the band led by V (guitar/bass/vocals, Jupiterian, ex-The Black Coffins) signed to Everlasting Spew Records announces the release of its second album, Advent of Wounds.
From the very first second, Cremation of a Seraph hammers us with wild riffs coupled with thick vocals, a clear sign that the years have not mellowed the band, still allowing themselves to slow down to become even more oppressive and dissonant before rolling over us again. The constant pressure continues with the next track, Disentombed and Reassembled by the Ages, which takes a similar approach and doesn’t hold back in pouring out all its darkness at a steady pace, offering intricate patterns that contrast with the haunting passages and their majestic touches, as on the final that leads into Scalded by his Sacred Halo. Justin Stubbs (Encoffination, Father Befouled, Occulsed…) returns in this web of anxiety and suffocating musical complexity, which at times gives way to cavernous sounds, before the duo sets off again at full speed on Terrestrial Mold thanks to a massive blast. The alternating rhythms keep us on the edge of our seats thanks to the changing heaviness, revealing chaotic passages and crushing elements in turn before the foghorn that introduces Servo, the next track, which lets us breathe for a moment before bursting into flames itself, not without playing on piercing harmonics to complete the block of aggression. A few moments of breathless respite, then While the Light Lasts takes over and brings us back to its heady slowness before placing a few intoxicating leads that clash, creating a hellish melody that eventually accelerates under the impulse of the drums, but returns to this monolithic aspect for its final moments. The album already comes to an end with Temple of Flies and Moss, the last track where the alternation between speed and slowness is taken to the extreme and strikes without warning, even mixing the two aspects to surprise us until silence falls.
To say that I was expecting this new spark of life from Fossilization would be an understatement, as would saying that Advent Of Wounds hit me like a monumental slap in the face. The album tramples us from start to finish.
95/100