Next step for Towering.
Having celebrated its first decade last year, the Paris-based band comprising Tom J. Silver (guitar/vocals, ex-Funeral Desekrator), Christnach (guitar), Mortem (drums, Hexekration Rites, Mortis Mutilati), and Arboria (bass, Humanitas Error Est, ex-Lebenssucht) continues its journey with Dolorem Records for the release of its second album, The Oblation of Man.
Asceticism immediately unveils its dark, hazy dissonance as the rhythm section gradually builds, finally exploding all at once with the arrival of roars that signal the true beginning of the assault. The hypnotic leads create a Black/Death touch, but the band quickly shifts toward pure aggression via waves of violence, while the shadow still looms in the slower passages, creating a contrast with the visceral screams that emerge from these blocks of unbridled fury, just as on To Die Once And Emerge, which adds an abrasive edge to its already razor-sharp riffs. The sound remains relentless, assaulting us without mercy, but a break allows us to catch our breath temporarily while the unsettling harmonics still rage on; yet once again, the rhythm section plunges back into violence, barely granting us another moment to breathe before slowly merging into the thick, impenetrable Shattering Individuality, which shifts toward imposing tones. One should still note the more mystical and unsettling touches in these dark blocks bristling with devastating screams, while The Devouring Presence offers us a far heavier and more menacing atmosphere, drawing once again from Black Metal to reinforce its already significant impact, which naturally becomes very haunting. After a brief pause, the band follows up with Herald Of The Black Sun, a new, lengthy composition that revisits the haunting and dark elements developed in the previous tracks while ensuring palpable savagery and prolonging the sonic oppression until Embraced Atonement takes over and knocks us out in turn, delivering a final storm as furious as it is gloomy, where piercing leads vie with the grave-like screams that populate the band’s relentless riffs. Such a giddy final…
While Towering offered very in-your-face compositions in its early years, the band has gradually shifted toward a more massive, darker, and dissonant Death Metal that reaches its full potential on The Oblation of Man.
85/100