Cadaver Shrine – Benighted Desecration (Blackened Death Doom of the Funereal Quality)

 

I sometimes wonder if Maurice de Jong, known primarily for his project Gnaw Their Tongues, is like superhuman or something. The number of notable bands he’s constructed, all of a dark and experimental style, would practically be a review in itself. Simply writing them all down would achieve the word count I prefer, but let me actually write something today. His most recent activity (meaning literally the past few months) has been in the form of this, Cadaver Shrine, a thickly charred corpse of death doom, coming both with his categoristic depravity and its own specialized form, which we shall consider of the funereal quality.

   

There is certainly a brief nod to old school death metal, but Benighted Desecration is yet modern in its combining forces. The first notable feature is the utilization of dreadful melodies within a trudging, bleak crawl not yet doom and not yet death, but certainly black. At its core is a vibrant, full chunk of feedback with thick bass for structure, and this remains entirely consistent. But instead of taking jarring, melodic twists, the bulk of the work is purposefully mind-numbing. Riffs are often drawn into unusual lengths, creating a soothing lull that reduces any good mood to mope. By the time tempo changes, when it does, you’re already hypnotized by the album’s sense of dread, and these brief spells of speed are but a final breath of air to a victim of hanging. If you’re familiar with his other work, you might be expecting more experimentation, but this is kept to the minimal. For the most part, it is a funeral doom crush to death metal with little artifice beyond this fact.

 

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Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Cadaver Shrine – Benighted Desecration
Chaos Records
Cover Art: Band
4.3 / 5