Let the darkness surround you with the new album from Lvcifyre, The Broken Seal.

You might be able to guess from the name of the band that their musical leaning is in the Black and Death Metal direction. Lvcifyer released their first EP in 2009 and two long-players after that, The Calling Depths (2011) and Svn Eater (2014). Another EP, Sacrament, staved off fan cravings in 2019 until The Broken Seal entered the cosmos. Of course the music is heavy and fast and ravaging, and the themes of chaos, darkness, and woe are ever-present. Naturally.

The opening bars of the first track are a dark ramp of emergent noise and growls and then a punishing attack on your senses. This is what I expected. Speed and ferocity in the opening salvo. But in the second song, “Tribes of Khem,” the perspective deepens and branches out in measured and fascinating ways. The tempo moderates and the vocals exude dark power. The riffs are not desensitizing and the blast beats become judicious.

“Black Beneath the Sun” is even weightier in its musical expression, displaying eruptions along with a discernable linearity. Indeed, the music becomes positively theatrical at points. These compositional choices give the album balance and make the tracks individually more memorable and the set overall more powerful.

Other stand-out songs are “The First Archon” with its pushing, enlivening insistence and the closer, “Black Mass,” with its gorgeous Blackened Doom palette. This album is my first serious listen to Lvcifyre but it will not be my last – it has made a big impression on me. Recommended.

The Broken Seal is out today, Friday, September 10^th from Dark Descent Records in the US and Norma Evangelium Diaboli in Europe.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://lvcifyre.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Lvcifyre

Dark Descent Records, http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/store/