Year: 2024
Label: Svart Records
So many artists, so many releases, so little time. Especially when your musical tastes are somewhat extensive and far reaching, this equation becomes impossible – and I do consider my taste to be just that.
As such, US death metal act Petrification had registered on my radar, and I’m pretty sure I’ve checked out their debut album Hollow Of The Void briefly (at least the cover looks familiar), but not intently enough for it to have made any kind of impression. So when this colourful little album landed in my mailbox, I had few preconceived ideas.
Whilst the cover artwork for Sever Sacred Light with its bright colors and somewhat Hindu style mystic imagery is atypical for death metal, the music certainly isn’t. The US quintet land smack dab in the middle of the whole new school old school death metal revival that’s been going on for, oh, about a decade now, I guess? This means they take their cues from the iconic and influential acts of yore, and unashamedly forsake more modern developments of the genre.
And good for them, I say! Sever Sacred Light evokes efficiently acts such as Autopsy, Immolation and other names of early death metal. I even hear a tinge of Bolt Thrower here and there. The promo sheet namechecks also classic Finnish death metal – and as you might now, that’s a surefire way to get me interested – but I don’t really hear it. The intro to first track Twisted Visions Of Creation sounds like it could be lifted from Sentenced’s North From Here, but apart from that, I don’t hear much Finnish influence.
But nevermind, nevermind. Because what Petrification cook up from this potluck of old school death metal is savoury and tasty as it is. There’s a lot of that mid tempo, doom laden churning of classic Autopsy, the entirely serviceable meat-and-potatoes death metal of Immolation, some of that rolling heaviness of Bolt Thrower, and so on, combined into a very adept style of timeless death metal that leans towards slower tempos without actually crossing over into death/doom territory.
If there’s one thing to criticize on the album, it would be its sameyness. Here it sort of invokes the less illustrious sides of Immolation: just as the minor US legend, Petrification made entirely competent death metal, but that final oomph of superbly memorable riffs or other hooks is missing. The fact that the vocals, though slightly reminiscent of Chris Reifert, are a bit monotonous in their style, only underlines this.
However, it’s not a major flaw. Yes, a memorable killer track would lift this album to the next level. But even as it stands now, Sever Sacred Light is absolutely worth listening to for any fans of heavy, old school death metal.
Only Death Is Real 