†▼††† ‎- Beyond The Flesh (2020)

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†▼††† ‎- Beyond The Flesh (2020)

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1. Church Over the Sea
2. Portrait of the Void
3. Death's Work
4. The Apparition
5. Bury Me in a Nameless Grave
6. Esoterismos da Morte

†▼††† aka Death Cult Devotion is a new player in the gloomy all-star stable of Blvsphemy Records. While doing my research for this review I've opened a floodgate of information about him, mainly thanks to the interview he did here. Turns out he has a number of active and defunct side-projects, one of them being BLΛCK GOΛT CVLT (released a sweet collab with Rotten Wolf on Hexx 9 last year). There's a lot to cover, but will focus on this year's "Beyond The Flesh" for now.
Death Cult Devotion's music is a slow-burning, captivating and ethereal soundtrack to the vast lands of Mordor. Opening with "A Church Over the Sea", we're thrown into the dark world of atmospheric witch ambience, and led astray by screams and whispers of lost souls crashing against coastal rocks. The use of bells during the track was an amazing addition, and the hi-hats bring all its elements together. The synth that kicks in at 2min mark may be a bit too much, but the way it's faded with the mischievous sound of flute absolutely won me over. "Portrait of the Void" transports us to a haunted amusement park with a theme song from a broken carousel playing somewhere in the distance, only to be woken up by a brooding synth and samples of a horde of orcs plotting some end-of-the-world raid. This atmosphere reminds me of the excellent mixtape by DJ David Goblin from 2018 - we definitely need more orcs in witch house. This distressed and menacing feeling continues throughout the record: keys in "Death's Work" and "The Apparition" give a grandiose Phantom of the Opera feel to them, while delicate bells in "Bury Me in a Nameless Grave" add a fairytale spin to an otherwise chilling track. "Esoterismos da Morte", built around a droney synth, serves as a closing composition to this really solid EP. "Beyond The Flesh" may not be a ground-breaking, year-defining project, but can definitely serve as a great introduction to an artist who may take the scene by storm in the next couple of years. I'm really looking forward to dig dipper into DCD's back-catalogue and discover his other projects. Don't sleep on this.
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