Dawn of Ouroboros – Velvet Incandescence (Review)

This is the second album from Dawn of Ouroboros, a progressive black/death metal band from the US.

Following on from 2020’s well-received The Art of Morphology, Velvet Incandescence brings us 46 minutes of new material from Dawn of Ouroboros, who feature members of Botanist and Cailleach Calling.

Velvet Incandescence sees Dawn of Oroboros refine and develop their sound further. Taking the strengths displayed on The Art of Morphology, the band have reinforced these, while also broadening their scope of operations. The end result is an album of expressive progressive metal with black and death metal components that should see them sit comfortably next to acts such as Ne Obliviscaris, Black Crown Initiate, An Abstract Illusion, and Enslaved in the higher echelons of progressive extreme metal.

The music is atmospheric and emotive, offering the listener a progressive journey into multifaceted extreme metal. There’s plenty of heaviness and aggression here, drawn largely from the melodic strains of black and death metal, but these aspects ultimately service the overall aims of each individual song. The melodies used are bright streaks of colour that infect the music in a variety of moreish ways. Sometimes this manifests as an accompanying lead, other times a prominent solo. However it’s used,  there’s a melodic backbone to the album that’s quite compelling.

Each of the tracks here has its own character within the whole, and each showcases a breadth of good ideas and memorable moments. The material ranges from light and ethereal to savage and intense; clean guitars and clean vocals complement the distorted darkness and scathing screams and growls quite effectively. Of the vocals, these are better than ever. Like the music, the singer has developed her voice and both her clean and harsh vocals are well-performed. Her clean singing voice in particular is impressive and drips with emotion and power.

The band’s ability to deliver a multitude of musical personalities within one song and have them not sound disjointed is testament to the quality of the songwriting. Velvet Incandescence is textured and detailed throughout, and Dawn of Ouroboros have improved upon their early promise significantly.

Very highly recommended for any fan of progressive extreme metal.