Black/death metal often either takes a melodic approach à la Dissection or favours the more clinical, blast-oriented side of things. Ævangelist draw heavily from the Incantation and Mortician low-tuned, guttural schools of super-heavy DM. Add in the twisted, otherworldly sounds of Gnaw Their Tongues and the effect is startling.
Imagine drifting in and out of a nightmare, only to wake and find you actually are in Hell. From a fiendish deep rumble to a sort of opium-laced fever dream – like the soundtrack to the short stories of RE Howard and Clark Ashton Smith in Weird Tales. With guitars sounding like demonic howls from the bowels of purgatory and vocals straight from a possession, the likes of Veils and Prayer For Ascetic Misery are the perfect playlist for a bad mood.
Last year’s De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis was very highly regarded, and if there’s any justice Omen Ex Simulcra, with its sharpened songwriting and heightened sense of foreboding, will see Ævangelist take their rightful place alongside the likes of Grave Miasma, Necros Christos and Cruciamentum at the vanguard of dark and deathly extremity.
