Somnuri - Desiderium - Metal Epidemic

Somnuri – Desiderium
Release Date: 21st July 2023
Label: MNRK Heavy
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge Metal
FFO: High On Fire, Opeth, Mastodon, Torche, Baroness.
Review By: Mark Young

It is astounding to find that despite being in July, there are still some fantastic music being released and Desiderium is no exception. This is a vital release, mixing in different genres and approaches to provide you with an incredibly satisfying brew.

Riffs are the order of the day here, and I love it, everything moves forward constantly, with no time for any drop off in keeping you engaged, just throwing cool progressions at you at every turn. On opener Death is the Beginning, they mix the vocal attack up, giving the cleans room to breathe and to take over, and it works so well with Justin Sherrell stamping his quality all over it. It is just so accessible that once you press play that is it, you are in for the long haul and with a run time of just over 37-minutes each one hits and moves, mixing and taking the best from a number of influences that are worn proudly. Paramnesia has some of ‘those’ chef kiss riff progressions that makes the hair stand up, and Pale Eyes could be one of the best latter-day Opeth songs, possessing a brilliant energy that just flies and will be a live classic.

They avoid that dreaded drop in momentum and that usual slow, third song. Here, they go the other way by keeping the songs fast and fluid, and when they do slow up, they make up for it with a knack for building epic soundscapes that are just chock-full of those emotional hitting moments. This is all over Hollow Visions, where they twin the arrangement with some spot-on clean singing that elevates it further. Remnants is another that is just top class, and in all honesty, I’m running out of words to describe how good this is, I just absolutely love it.

This album is the sound of a band who have hit their stride, writing some absolute belters and for me, It’s difficult to single out a special moment because each song is a cracker, but, if pushed, it’s tied between Hollow Visions and Flesh_Blood just because of how each one comes at you, so different, but they fit so well together they are just amazing. This gives you an idea of how high their bar is set at.

You know that you are onto a winner when you can listen to it twice in the same day; it just keeps getting better with repeated listens. It has that little bit of everything to make it an essential purchase, and as I said earlier, here we are in July and another AOTY has just dropped. I would suggest that you do not sleep on this album or on this band, and if you get the chance to catch them live, do so. Buy their merch, because you will want more from them.