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Album Review

The Dark Alamorté – ‘Lunacrium Thepsis’ [Album Review]

The Dark Alamorté weave an epic tale of loneliness and anger on their brutal new album ‘Lunacrium Thepsis.’ Read our review here.

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Over the last couple of years at least, the Unique Leader roster has been primarily responsible for spewing out a barrage of the most face-melting tech/death/gore metal to which you will have been subjected. Now, the label behemoths turn their attention towards the epic blackened death metal scene in the form of the North American band The Dark Alamorté who are about to drop their blistering new record, Lunacrium Thepsis. A fifteen-track onslaught of atmospheric savagery, Lunacrium Thepsis is not a piece of work for the faint-hearted.

Created around the build-up and subsequent suicide of the main character, Lunacrium Thepsis starts out with a haunting spoken-word passage setting the darkened tone for what is to follow. What ensues is a savage onslaught, a mouthwatering feast of blast-beat-laden blackened death metal. Played out at a ferocious pace, the likes of “Cast Into Froth” and “A Loathing Tomb” are as harrowing musically as the story they portray. A relentless surge of harsh vocals, frenzied guitars and machine-gun-like drumming, the added symphonics give these savage creations a truly grandiose air. By weaving dramatic symphonics and familiar black metal atmospheric soundscapes into the brutality, the sound, while unrelenting beasty, has so much depth and emotion to it and, given that this album clocks in at an energy-crushing seventy-seven minutes, they offer a respite to the musical assault.

A test of stamina, thankfully, there are plenty of moments, for example during “Tempest Barren Furor,” where the outfit lock into a mammoth groove which ticks things along nicely before the next barrage of blast-filled black metal drives relentlessly into your face. An album devoid of any light moments, the darkness of the atmospheric breaks such as “Infernal Judgement,” add an ice-cold bleakness to the tale while the punishing fury of tracks like “Tusk In The Abyss” have you praying for the next much-needed respite. As this tale hurtles towards its dramatic conclusion, “Scourge of Fire” drags you towards that finish line in a flurry of blackened hate.

But what a finale. At ten minutes long, the title track sets out to bring this harrowing tale to a suitably epic climax. Bringing together all the elements that have made this such a stunning record into one ten-minute display of gut-wrenching, emotion-sapping fury, The Dark Alamorté brings this terrific tale of loneliness, sadness and anger to the kind of conclusion that will leave you both emotionally and physically exhausted. An epic saga, Lunacrium Thepsis is an album into which you have to fully immerse yourself to appreciate the bleak beauty contained within but, should you do so, you won’t regret it.

Lunacrium Thepsis Track Listing:

1. The Inner Quiet
2. Cast Into Froth
3. Gowns of Undying Light
4. Vongrimson Burrows
5. A Loathing Tomb
6. Glasshaven
7. Tempest Barren Furor
8. Inmergo Dominium
9. Antediluvian Revelation
10. Infernal Judgement
11. Ungiving Sorrow
12. Tusk In The Abyss
13. Fearfeeder
14. Scourge of Fire
15. Lunacrium Thepsis

Run Time: 77:29
Release Date: May 20th, 2022
Record Label: Unique Leader Records

I have an unhealthy obsession with bad horror movies, the song Wanted Dead Or Alive and crap British game shows. I do this not because of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle it affords me but more because it gives me an excuse to listen to bands that sound like hippos mating.

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