ANTICREATION – The Dust of Embers
Release Date: 8th July 2022
Label: Nuclear Winter Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal.
FFO: Pseudogod, Immolation, Dead Congregation, Lucifyre.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Greek Blackened Death act Anticreation is set to release their 2022 LP title From the Dust of Embers, a 10-track debut album meant to combine some of the more prolific elements of the Greek death scene (members of Burial hordes, Enshadowed, and Merciless Crucifxion) into a single project hoping to reach fans of Immolation and Lucifyre with their hybrid style of black and death metal. For many fans, this will be an atmospheric death metal experience that leans heavily on the song structure and “tone” of black metal with the chunkier, grittier detritus of OSDM.
The album starts with an interlude (of which there are two) before going into the title track, From the Dust of Embers, a track which immediately gives strong vibes of Immolation. The mixing is rather flat and washy, creating the “wall of sound” that black metal employs so masterfully. Vocals are deeper, chesty death metal-style over the guitar-heavy torrent of binary dissonant chords. Each track utilizes a gigantic reverb effect on all guitars to form a gigantic, hollow cacophony, which continues into The Beauty of Lava, track 3, a song that ends rather abruptly before going into the next track, something I wasn’t entirely ready for, as I think it could have been executed with more finesse.
Abomination Reborn (track 4) seems to have a different mixing or mastering dynamic in its long, dark intro. This particular track eventually returns right back into the previous “wall of sound” dynamic after a few minutes of its 4:48 runtime. I personally think this track shows incredible ambient/heavy back-and-forth, almost breaking into the post-black style. It makes for an effective variation of tone between the first two “heavier” tracks and later albums. The Last Perception starts absolutely massively in a death/noise metal sequence that sets a blistering pace and is 100% the fastest, heaviest track on the album in its first two-thirds before settling down into a long outtro.
The Swarm is another 44-second interlude track, which I personally find to be excessive, given the interlude track at the beginning and some of the 90-second outros on other tracks. Kathagiasis features a full doom-esque breakdown with what sounds like throat singing, something that is surprisingly interesting, adding quite a bit of the esoteric to the latter half of the album. From the Dust of Embers finishes with a bonus track, The Supreme Terror, a fast, noise-heavy song with similar pace and dynamics to Abomination Reborn, a real head-banger for the speed freaks that features the only thrashy solo on the entire album.
Some of the things that I really enjoy on this album are the elements of the post-black/post-death (or even doom-inspired) that are engineered into most of the tracks. Listeners aren’t simply taken for a ride through a completely repetitive black metal sound assault. There are numerous sequences in which each track goes into half-time tempo, splitting up the track flow, only to return to the heavy, noisy blast-heavy measures. It has a twofold effect. First, it allows each track to go on much longer (average track time on the album over 4 minutes). Second, it creates an ebb-and-flow that (if you’ve read any of my previous reviews) helps the listener feel the “totality” of the album, rather than just a simple mixtape-type of effect.
While From the Dust of Embers is dotted with a few unnecessary interludes and long outros, it is overall a good project and offering that ought to be a worthwhile listen, especially for fans of ambient blackened death with some noise elements. There are ample heavy moments for those who like the fast/slow transitions, as well as tracks with good run time, allowing Anticreation to craft a musical narrative that allows the album to speak as a whole. 
(3 / 5)
