Desolate Shrine – Fires of the Dying World
Release Date: 25th March 2022
Label: Dark Descent Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom.
FFO: Blood Incantation, Teeth, Hate Eternal, Vacivus, and Spectral Voice.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Despite the calming tones of the intro track, creatively titled “Intro,” Desolate Shrine is not here to bring you comfort. The music on Fires of the Dying World is unnerving and claustrophobic. Like a thrill ride through a graveyard, the songs are enjoyable and rewarding, but not without inducing their fair share of terror. With a line-up identified enigmatically by only their initials, Finland’s Desolate Shrine is back with their first album since 2017. Joining LL, who plays all of the instruments, are RS and MT on vocals. Together, they have created a dissonant, chaotic, and ultimately heavy as nails album that is the perfect balance of death metal and paranoia.
After “Intro” lulls the listener into a false sense of tranquillity, “Echoes in the Halls of Vanity” reveals Desolate Shrine’s true intentions. With chainsaw guitars and bombastic drums, the second track builds to a crescendo of a dissonant solo being played over massive riffs while a man speaks amidst the devilish growls of one or both of the vocalists. If this sounds like it may raise a hair or two on the back of your neck, I think you’ve got the point. “The Silent God” begins with another thirty seconds of beautifully played acoustic guitar before the oppressive heaviness kicks in and pummels the listener like a bulldozer knocking down a wall. At one point, the lyrics say that “The only way out is through death,” and the music is so crushing that this is not hard to believe.
“Cast to Walk the Star of Sorrow” is next and doubles down on the chaos. With riffs that appear to slide around the fretboard, parts of this song remind me of Hate Eternal. Two thirds of the way through, the listener is given thirty seconds of calm to catch their breath before the song switches gears and comes back with a riff that is the closest to groove metal that Desolate Shrine comes. “My Undivided Blood” is next and features a section that is spoken almost like an incantation. This section ends with a ghoulish laugh and is followed by a thundering bass line that leads to the doomy heart of the song. Finally, “The Furnace of Hope” closes out the album with a perfect blend of the death metal from the rest of the album and the doom from the previous song. With atmosphere dripping out of its pores, the song reminds the listener one last time that Desolate Shrine is not here to mess around.
While so many of the adjectives, such as oppressive and terror-inducing, that I’ve used to describe the album sound like they could be taken negatively, this is not how they are intended. Desolate Shrine does make music that is chaotic and unnerving, but in its challenge lies its reward. I can’t promise that Fires of the Dying World won’t leave you breathless and on edge, but I can promise that what Desolate Shrine does they do well, and if you are like me and love the death metal and death-doom that their record label, Dark Descent, puts out on the regular, you’ll find much to enjoy herein.
(5 / 5)
