Lvcifyre – The Calling Depths

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The last place blackened death metal has been associated with is England, but The Calling Depths by London’s Lvcifyre looks to bring the genre back home with them. Featuring ex-members of the outstanding Adorior, The Calling Depths is a refreshing combination of Suffocation and Morbid Angel with the blackened sounds of war metal bands like Adversarial and Ritual Necromancy. The track The Faceless One even shows that they too fall into the unescapable generalization that most European death metal bands have some similarites to Polish death metal, like Vader or Behemoth. But it’s really not a bad thing. Lvcifyre juggle these different sounds and flip back and forth between them several times a song. Lvcifyre has a decidedly old-school approach to songs, but the production is really fantastic, bringing out the solo’s when needed and making sure every instrument sounds crystal clear. Bad production would have been the death of this album. Holy Chaos shows off how fast the band can go. Blast-beats and non-stop riffing bring forth a great atmosphere of, as the title suggests, chaos that will make you bang your head. Juxtaposed with it is the next track, Death’s Magnetic Sleep, which is a mid-paced song that sounds more like an ode to ’90s Morbid Angel than an original song. While there is enough here to make anyone who listens happy, there’s definitely nothing here that someone well-versed in death metal hasn’t heard before. Lvcifyre might also turn off some newer listeners for not being flashy enough, but they get the job done. A solid release from solid band in a burgeoning scene.

Written by Jackson May
More: 2012, Albums, Death Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Lvcifyre