Civerous – Maze Envy
Release Date: 22nd March 2024
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Doom Metal, Extreme Metal, Blackened, Progressive.
FFO: Spectral Voice, Disembowelment, My Dying Bride, Worm, Ceremonium, Tzompantli, Krypts, Rippikoulu.
Review By: Rick Farley
Crushing is a word that is freely thrown around in just about all metal reviews, and for good reason, it is descriptive and to the point. I use it all the time. In this case of Civerous, crushing is simply not a good enough word to describe the relentless hell that is being unleashed here. This is extremely ugly, nasty death/doom that truly feels sick and suffocating. Los Angeles, California’s Civerous violently takes hold of your body and sucks the air out, leaving a lifeless pile of flesh. Heavy as hell, dissonant, and absolutely brutal, Maze Envy, releasing on 20 Buck Spin March 22nd, 2024, is going to be this year’s metal album that just might blow your fucking speakers up.
Seven tracks at forty-two minutes, this album is soaked in brutality. The most remarkable thing about Maze Envy though, is the refined balance between extreme heaviness and melody that is executed masterfully. Beautiful yet ominous passages of progressive melody are strung throughout the album, showing tremendous use of dynamics. The heavy hits heavier when it’s led to by slow build-ups of clean guitars, serene atmosphere, and sorrowful ambience.
Maze Envy has multiple layers and textures that require more than one listen. The overall foundation is dissonant, with grisly riffs and destructive percussion. Impressive growls and gutturals make everything all the grimier. Track four Labyrinth Charm featuring Derek Rydquist (The Zenith Passage, The Faceless) on guest vocals is a wicked taste of nastiness. The guitars twist and turn mercilessly full of bone breaking fierceness. The nauseous heaviness on this record is beyond ruthless, reaching levels of dizzying speeds and bone breaking grooves. There is a genuine progressive beauty however, in all this dreary savagery. An enchanting middle section of stringy guitars, violin, and jazzy drumbeats during the title track Maze Envy shine bright in the ethereal before returning to a chaotic blackened riff and nightmarish screams. The jarring of the sections transition smoothly but are so abrasively different it feels destructive. Opulent synths mimic the crushing wave of slow riffs on the nearly ten-minute opus,
Geryon (The Plummet), slowly building to a faster section that keeps building more layers, leading to blast beats and gross tremolo picking. All the while the intoxicating synths are in the background unknowingly mesmerizing your consciousness. This is music you will feel, in every way. The softer moments will sooth you, the doomy melodies sound dejected and will seduce into thinking all hope is gone, while the heaviness is grossly punishing.
Daniel Salinas and Alonso Santana’s guitar work pivots from ominous cleans, to murderous jagged riffs and searing leads. Waves and waves of grinding intense riffs, cut and tear with a sharp toned crunchiness. Lord Foul’s vocals reach every level of hideousness imaginable, black metal shrieks, growls, low gutturals, and hellish snarls. The drums from Aidan Neuner are intricately potent. Chaos filled beats relentlessly pummel while the thick low-end booms from bassist Drew Horton. Civerous as a whole is nothing short of monstrous symmetry while individually the musicianship is top level all the way around.
Production wise, Maze Envy sounds incredible. The album was recorded and mixed by Andrew Solis of Apparition. The music is dense at times yet still clear. Cavernous and ultra heavy, the guitars rip through with a doomy sharpness, while the gigantic rhythm section feels like an enormous beast ripping through a mirror maze shattering everything in sight. The atmospheric synths are airy, rich, and full adding even more massiveness to the music. Honestly, this might be the best sounding record I have heard so far this year. The dynamics, clarity, and tones are outstanding.
Without a doubt, Civerous has released one hell of a uniquely visceral record, which is sincerely crushing. Maze Envy will surely still be in my ears at the end of the year. Death/doom at its finest and most brutal. 
(5 / 5)
