This is the debut album by Sacred Noose, a black/death metal band from Northern Ireland.
Vanishing Spires offers up a 31-minute concoction of poisonous black, death, and doom metal, all poured into a think tar-like substance of misery, pestilence, and woe. Sacred Noose are like a shroud of horror and violence hiding a deeper malevolence that just wants everything to decay and wither away.
Yep, this is the stuff, right here.
In effect, it’s blackened death metal, with elements of mountainous doom. It’s fuelled by furious dissonance, and attacks with spirited war metal ferocity. Enhanced further by caustic noise and misery-drenched ambient, Vanishing Spires is an album of many textures, and is more varied than you’d probably expect.
This is a dark, malevolent work, steeped in terror and nightmare. The music is heavily atmospheric, rich in oppressive depths that stretch from the surface hostility right down to the depths of its despairing abyssal heart.
Across Vanishing Spires Sacred Noose show how adept they are at crafting blackened darkness that’s immersive and well-constructed. The album flows as a collection of tracks that work together to create a comprehensive listening experience. It’s a forbidding and formidable journey that Sacred Noose offer, and it’s apparent that the band have put thought into how this plays out song by song, section by section.
Vanishing Spires embraces chaos, adores brutality, worships spiteful aggression, and absolutely loves murderous atmosphere. These otherworldly soundscapes can be abrasive and lethal, or cold and lonely, or much between, but whatever is happening during the album, it’s sure to keep you thoroughly entranced. Sacred Noose know what they are doing with this sort of malefic horror, and Vanishing Spires is a record of many dark and unexpected wonders.
Vanishing Spires provides the listener with a far more interesting, diverse, and engaging experience than I was hoping for. It’s a strong album that avoids many of the pitfalls that plague many ostensibly similar releases; it doesn’t outstay its welcome, it’s not one-dimensional, the violence remains coherent, etc. In other words, Sacred Noose are very, very good, with a well-developed identity of their own.
Fans of bands such as Abyssal, Black Curse, Coscradh, Portal, Spectral Voice, Teitanblood, and the like need to not miss out on this monstrosity of a record.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 