RSS Feed


OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GRAVES
Harbinger Uncerimonious

Self-released (2022)
Rating: 7.5/10

As soon as I saw track titles such as ‘Worship Cyclopean Monolith’ and ‘Hallucinations, Morphine Phantasms’ I knew this was going to be one of those enveloping, cancerous death metal records boasting blackening dissonance and titanic darkness.

Featuring members of South Carolina’s Psionic Madness – namely Justin Vølus (vocals), Nicholas Turner (lead guitar) and the prolific Jared Moran (rhythm guitar, bass and drums) – Out Of The Mouth Of Graves is a project that has seemingly emerged from nowhere, like a dormant geyser that’s now shot its vile load.

Described in a press release as “progressive and experimental death metal”, Harbinger Uncerimonious is a punishing and harrowing expression, akin to being dragged into a cold, clammy cave and ravaged not only by the unforgiving conditions but the weird, bloodthirsty manifestations such a cacophony would surely cause after being exposed to it for too long.

The album offers seven tracks and a total duration of 25 minutes, but it feels far longer and that’s a compliment to its dragging power. Opener ‘Nihilistic Visions Of Torment’ sounds like a vomiting vacuum cleaner, a torrid torrent cast from abysmal depths as the trio fuses to form a cascading barrage of ice and slide in one monumental shift of drudgery.

The downpour is so thick and heavy that any experimentation may initially become lost in the silt. This suffocates within seconds; an abysmal tirade of gurgling, stifling morbidity made all the more loathsome by the deep, chesty vocals.

It’s not a gnawing, one-dimensional monster though. A sudden, unexpected tirade of blast beats and brutality emerges and continues into the hideous ‘Herald Of The Tempest’ where flashes of violent black / death exhibit the sheer intense convulsions of the percussion. And that’s how this abomination unravels; slow, thickening oozing merged with drawer, frothing expressions.

‘Worship Cyclopean Monolith’ is a sickening barrage, a rush of frosted, arctic rawness steeped in dissonance, while ‘Hallucinations, Morphine Phantasms’ provides further smothering, where the theme continues through each relatively short expression, although each segment sprawls like a vast, colossal plateau of freezing hate.

‘Abstraction To Oblivion’ hammers with steaming pistons, where the vocals are projectile vomits amidst further flurries of grim blasting. And the end comes via the toxic ‘The Void Enveloping’ – an apt title for such a consuming albeit chaotic slab of chaos and intensity.

This debut should come with a health warning.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share