Father Befouled – Crowned in Veneficum
Release Date: 25th March 2022
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Incantation, Cruciamentum, Dead Congregation, Immolation, and Mortiferum.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Hailing from Georgia, Father Befouled plays cavernous death metal that will appeal to fans of Incantation and Mortiferum. Consisting of vocalist and lead/rhythm guitarist Justin Stubbs, bassist Rhys Spencer, drummer Amos Rifkin, and Derik Goulding who also plays lead and rhythm guitar, Father Befouled has been churning out bludgeoning death metal for over fifteen years. Crowned in Veneficum, the follow up to 2017’s Desolate Gods, is their fifth full-length and their first album released through Everlasting Spew Records.
Crowned in Veneficum is nasty in the best possible way. From the disgusting guitar riffs and the nightmare-inducing vocals to the unpolished production, this album is going to warm the black hearts of many an old-school death metal fan. At times plodding and menacing and at other times frenetic and nerve racking, Father Befouled does not make music for the faint of heart. Take the opening track for instance. Unheavenly Catechesis buzzsaws its way through a few minutes of old school death metal before slowing things down with a doomy interlude that leads to an eerie solo and then returns to the main riff. All in all, quite a ride, and if this was the only song on the album, it would still be worth the price of admission. Fortunately, Father Befouled treats the listener to a total of nine similar slabs of metal goodness, so there’s plenty of mind-melting death metal to enjoy.
On Crowned in Veneficum, Father Befouled displays three tempos: fast, mid-paced, and doomy. While this may not seem like a big deal (after all, all good bands vary tempos), Father Befouled uses these varied tempos to weave suffocating tapestries of gloom filled with more atmosphere than most planets have surrounding them. Songs like Salivating Faithlessness and Miasmas of Sodom show how Father Befouled can use a slower tempo to add brooding dread to an up-tempo banger, while songs like the instrumental His Throne Decayed and Utter Abomination display the band’s ability can keep things doomy and still bludgeon the listener’s ear drums.
If you are a fan of Father Befouled, you are going to love Crowned in Veneficum. If you aren’t a fan of Father Befouled, you obviously haven’t heard them yet. For the uninitiated, Crowned in Veneficum is as good a place to start as any, seeing as how it is filled with the disgusting death metal that Father Befouled does best.
(5 / 5)
