Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal (Review)

Lvcifyre are a blackened death metal band from the UK and this is their third album.

Now here’s an album that’s been much anticipated by your truly. I really enjoyed 2014’s Svn Eater, so have been eager for a follow up. Now, seven years, (and one EP), later, Lvcifyre are back with the 44-minute The Broken Seal.

Well, the wait seems to have been worth it. Holy crap, I don’t know what Lvcifyre have been up to for the past seven years, but it can’t be good; these songs sound utterly evil, so approach The Broken Seal with care.

The band’s furious assault is malevolent and dark. Their music is a feast of brutality that’s been elevated by black metal’s grim infernal arts. You see, there’s more to The Broken Seal than simple deathly brutality, as good as that might be. The music on this album cloaks itself in the sinister atmosphere and ritualistic violence of malignant black metal.

There’s a precision here that belies the album’s savage exterior. Every part of these songs sounds as if a lot of careful thought and consideration has gone into it, and I’m sure every part has its own arcane meaning. The music is infused with an atmosphere of terrifying darkness and warped menace.

This is blackened death metal that’s alive with feral darkness and occult aggression. Lvcifyre primarily focus on the death metal side of the blackened death metal equation, but this is only so that they can get the important structural pieces in place before they unleash Hell with the corrupting influence of vicious black metal. The end result is a collection of songs that are brutally heavy and destructive, but that also want to swallow your soul as well as destroy your body.

The Broken Seal has exceeded my expectations. Lvcifyre have created a daemonic monster of a record. This is surely the sound of the apocalypse set to blackened death metal. If you like your death metal grim, dark, and brutal, but with the sort of nightmarish atmosphere that reeks of vile apocalyptic malevolence, then The Broken Seal is for you.

Very highly recommended.