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BITTER LOSS
Valleys Of The Fallen Empire EP

Self-released (2022)
Rating: 8.5/10

After last year’s crushing Oblivion In Ceremonial Void, Russian death metal bad boys Bitter Loss returns with another EP and again it’s a case of devastating brain removal.

If you’re not familiar with these guys then be prepared for utmost pulverisation because this is some seriously heavy, gloom-laden gnarliness. Reliant on suffocating atmosphere, this quintet sews together some genuinely harrowing moments whereby slow-moving instrumentation oozes through piles of smouldering ash to a tirade of pattering drum thuds evoking a Winter-style of sullenness coupled with myriads of heavyweight blasts.

‘God’s Grave’ is a thick, heaving entity billowing grey fumes from its orifice as guitars, drums and bass leak in utterly fetid fashion to create a monstrous syrupy tide of dense intoxicating death / doom. And that’s without the hideous vocal rants which are about as low and guttural as expressions can get. Bestowing misery upon us all, the harmlessly named Nick chews on coal-like shards before coughing them up as powdery cysts, leaving a tongue coated in black soot and teeth blunted by such chewing. This is totally ashen, totally bleak yet wonderfully mesmeric.

Even when the gears are shifted and the pace exhibit some sort of pace, it just comes across like a vile gnashing of rusty cogs and mechanised teeth grinding out a mix of putrid, rust-coloured saliva and undistinguishable grunts.

Valleys Of The Fallen Empire, is about as foul and belching as death / doom can get. ‘Tyranny Ascending’, ‘Centuries Hidden In Silence’ and the title track squirm as primitive designs that evoke images of crumbling stone, mighty yet smoking pillars of pallid persuasion caressed by thickening, cloying mists before being choked by descending clouds of dread.

Although interesting, the cover of Immolation’s ‘Those Left Behind’ is unnecessarily wedged in-between such churning compositions, but it’s a vile homage none the less. Bitter Loss really does encapsulate the dreary drudgery I expect from authentic death / doom because this EP smothers the earth like a menacing, destructive blob of humid grey and there’s just no escape.

Neil Arnold

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