Drown In Sulphur – Dark Secrets of the Soul
Release Date: 12th January 2024
Label: Scarlet Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Symphonic Blackened Deathcore
FFO: Dimmu Borgir, Septicflesh, Lorna Shore, Thy Art Is Murder.
Review By: Jeff Finch
The state of deathcore is…an interesting dynamic. On the one hand, there are bands who have been doing it for what seems like forever and release consistently good to great albums: Despised Icon, Carnifex, Whitechapel (yes, they’re still excellent), while on the other hand, there are stellar, newer bands making noise in the scene, like To the Grave and Brand of Sacrifice, who provide hope that the genre is still thriving and isn’t going anywhere. Then you have the outlier, in more ways than one, the band who is seemingly responsible for all of the underwhelming releases because they all strive to do what they did: Lorna Shore (with Will Ramos). Now, don’t get me wrong, Lorna is full of excellent musicians who are experts at their craft, but what they’ve become with and following To the Hellfire is a blueprint for ‘symphonic blackened deathcore’ bands – insanely paced riffs and drums and catastrophically heavy breakdowns all built around the vocalists’ ability to sound like a feral beast. Lather, rinse, and repeat. So, what does this all have to do with the new record from Drown in Sulphur? Well, they find themselves in somewhat of a precarious situation, where their influences are worn on their sleeves, but not insofar as it makes their music dull and repetitive. But they need to learn after this record, because they’re awfully close.
In case it wasn’t abundantly obvious with the above dissertation, Drown in Sulphur fancies themselves a blackened deathcore band with symphonic elements, and in a vacuum, they do excellent work. Fast, technical riffs, blistering percussive work, atmosphere that makes one feel like they’re in a horror movie, and a vocalist who can alternate between a deep guttural and a wicked shriek. But in the world of deathcore as it stands now, it’s hard to stick out with this as the outline with which to work. Immediately upon pressing play, listeners are treated to a build-up track, opener Adveniat Regnum Tuum, with what sounds like a demonic entity who’s been recorded trying to speak but not able to be understood because of some interference; creepy, atmospheric, overall an excellent way to get a listener prepared for an onslaught as the next track opens. But in a somewhat questionable decision, follow-up track Eclipse of the Sun of Eden starts with a melodic riff which acts, again, as a build-up of sorts. The lack of continuity between the first and second track is somewhat staggering, but at least credit to the group, they caught me off guard. It was jarring, it was unexpected, and I can’t complain too much about that, especially given the track itself is an excellent display of musicianship, the gunshot-esque, rapid fire drums transitioning into blast beats and back, as the riffs follow suit, the symphony in the background creating an epic environment, our vocalist finally kicking in with a deep growl before a few mini breakdowns couple with a demonic shriek.
Tracks like this, along with Unholy Light and finale Shadow of the Dark Throne, provide listeners insight into just how insanely good these guys are. On each of these tracks, the vocals alternate between these deep lows and high highs, all the while the pace is kept at a fever pitch, the symphonic elements providing enough beauty within the maelstrom to make each song feel like an experience rather than just a band playing notes. The melodic solos that rip through our speaker are the perfect times to take a breath and quickly recuperate, as the band has shown that the tempo rarely dips below ferociously fast.
Within this group of songs, however, is the point where the band ultimately needs to decide what path they want to take. Clearly experts in what they’re doing, they nevertheless find time in quite of few of these tracks to slow down to an earth shifting breakdown, the tension palpable as the notes dissipate and re-emerge, all while the vocalist does his best impression of a rabid beast, basically the ‘Will Ramos,’ and that’s the almost downfall. They make the conscious decision: “build this breakdown around these obscenely gnarly vocals, listeners have proven they love that.” And it’s true, the song To the Hellfire proved that, and it’s ultimately why Lorna and their clones are nearly insufferable to listen to in anything but small increments. However, I will say one thing about these guys: what they do differently from Lorna is that they don’t build entire songs around one breakdown with disgusting vocals. While they dabble in it, they craft great songs around the vocal and musical breakdown, giving listeners numerous minutes of solid symphonic deathcore to jam before their chest cavity is caved in with a breakdown, and dammit I can accept and respect that. But they need to be careful, if they start doing more of that, they’re taking the path of ‘sounding like everyone else.’
Having said all of this, what I can say about this new Drown in Sulphur is that I can recommend people listen to it and make their own decision about how much more symphonic blackened deathcore they want in their playlists. While I do respect the band as super talented musicians and overall like this record, I see the writing on the wall: they obviously know the sound they’re putting out now (and whether they were doing this before this release, I do not know, as this is the first release of theirs I’m jamming) is what seems to be both very popular and very polarizing, so they need to decide if that’s the route they continue with or if they want to actually stand out in the deathcore scene, because with this record, it seems as if they’re a bit torn.
(3.5 / 5)
