This is the debut album from Spanish black metallers Voidescent.
Dust and Embers contains 47 minutes of modern black metal that combines elements of the classic style with a more contemporary vision. Voidescent’s first album is imposing and accomplished.
Voidescent deliver an esoteric black metal assault that’s as scathing as it is moody. The band tear violent mystical melodies out of reality, leaving claw-shaped marks in the very fabric of existence. Dust and Embers impresses with its dark ferocity, but there’s more than just grim aggression on this record.
The songs are well-crafted, demonstrating a band comfortable with writing layers of intricacy into music that on the surface of it is primarily a storm of fierce intensity. A range of detailed ideas can be found within the mayhem though, lending Dust and Embers a longevity that some ostensibly similar albums might lack. Occult dissonance is baked into the music, allowing strange and unusual moods and feelings to reveal themselves within the violence. There’s also an introspective nuance here that contributes to Dust and Embers being a work that’s more textured than you might initially expect.
Dust and Embers is a quality record that should have fans of bands such as Sinmara, Deathspell Omega, Svartidauði, Dodecahedron, and Misþyrming eager to get to grips with the dark mysteries that it contains.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 