Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal (Monolithic Apocalyptic Serpent Metal)
Phew now here is something solid. I mean, I expect that out of the recent vanguard of English metal freaks, but still here’s another to add to the slowly-growing horde. Lvcifyre have been melting death metal into their own weapon for over a decade now, but their releases have been more sporadic and careful in comparison to other bands, appearing once roughly every five years. Their latest, The Broken Seal, is a welcome transfiguration of death and black into a reverse-of-Heaven monolith.
I mean the seal of all that is death and black metal is clearly broken from the beginning, the cover the entrance into the transformation that ensues. Lvcifyre create a true, apocalyptic serpent of riff proportions. Chords bend and sweep like cursed specters, the vocals are powerful and deep, at times, like a rising tectonic shift, yet can shriek like the same abandoned souls it commands while wallowing in a layer of profuse echo. The Broken Seal is a rather relentless transformation of death and black metal in a way that hearkens back to the past. As the genre sought to overwhelm the listener so long ago, bands like Lvcifyre are finding ways to return the genre to its essence while bringing it forwards. There’s little else to say about this one other than buy it, and now.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal
Dark Descent Records
Cover Art: Daniel Valeriani
5 / 5
