Album Review: Onirophagus - Revelations From the Void
Reviewed by Sam Jones
I’m always curious when I find an upcoming album release for January; this time of the year beset with curiosity for we know not yet what 2025 will bring. But slated for a January 17th release date, Spanish death/doom act Onirophagus will be unveiling their third full length album titled Revelations From The Void. I’ve often felt Spain possesses a consistently underrated extreme metal scene and hence why I am curious to see what Onirophagus may deliver. Formed in 2011 out of Catalonia, the band’s first release was their 2012 EP, Defiler Of Hope, which was quickly succeeded by their first album just a year onwards: Prehuman. Cut to six years later where, by 2019, Onirophagus finally unleashed their epically titled sophomore album, Endarkenment (Illumination Through Putrefaction). Now, another six years on, the band are back once more with their third aforementioned record having left Xtreem Music behind in favour of distributing this release via Personal Records. I was curious to see what the band would offer and given this is additionally my first exposure to the band, I was doubly interested to see what such a January release would give me.
You have to appreciate the band’s absence of subtlety as they dive us headfirst into an opening, ten minute piece that instantly shakes all trepidation an audience may have concerning this release. There’s no ceremonious handholding occurring to ease an audience into this record; the hurl us right into the thick of things and then expect us to float or swim, preferably the latter for the band will naturally want us to continue our journey with their soundscapes. Though their death/doom style is made abundantly apparent through melancholic chords that linger in the aether as the next is winding up, the band aren’t exactly clinging to any cliffs of sorrow aesthetically speaking; their attitude isn’t morose, their performance is one brimming with life so whilst you are going to have longer tracks thrust your way it’s not going to bury you down. This is a death/doom soundscape that’s surprisingly boisterous for its riffs, despite their downtuned, prolonged chords, are in your face and given a strongly outlined presence whereby their activity is always at the band’s forefront. Their vocals too are these mammoth utterances that explode forth, breaking free of instrumentation that death/doom frequently slots above vocals in these cases. Though the band’s tendencies for crushing, extensively written tracks is evident, it’s good to acknowledge the band aren’t seeking to bury us outright.
But while their songwriting is built around slower, crawling riffs, the band can heighten their pacing somewhat to establish more crunching variations. When this approach is employed it serves the band with reaching out with more than the sole tempo audiences are likely going into this opus fully expecting. Altering the tempo now and again also ensures songwriting morphs enough for our attention to remain fixed upon what they’re playing in the moment, since the band will have, by that moment, demonstrated their record isn’t going to fit itself into the usual shape death/doom often slots itself into. The crunching style their riffs emanate also allow for more visceral displays of aggressive death/doom not typically encountered across this subgenre as one track “Landsickness” showcases. Onirophagus demonstrate a more ruthless example by which death/doom may be performed however they make a point to include this track as the second in the album’s track running thereby fulfilling the expected vibes from such a record, and then subverting them completely with something more removed.
It’s worth noting the clarity by which their soundscape comes at us too. Now I imagine some will argue the band could have downplayed the cleanliness this record shines with, for it is an especially polished and smoothed out release, and thus render their songwriting with a greater crust and coarse nature. However, owing to the band’s evidently bombastic approach to death/doom, undergoing such a cavernous philosophy to production herein would have done Onirophagus a disservice for its power derives from the band’s unapologetically grand performance. This isn’t death/doom to hide and tuck away and let the atmospheric elements drive the band forth, the songwriting is placed upon a climbing pedestal and attempts to hide it would go against the grain of what the band clearly believe in. There’s hardly a drum strike that isn’t thrown right in our faces nor an ethereal guitar squeal that isn’t given our fullest attention since that is where we are being directed. Revelations From The Void may only have five tracks in its totality, but in this case five are enough for the band to get their point across since there is plenty throughout each piece to keep us enthralled from start to finish.
It’s striking that, given its death/doom, there are few instances whereby this record seems to actively slow down at any point. Granted you go into a record like this knowing the pace it’s going to purport but given the songwriting, and its ever-altering tempo, it never feels like a slow affair and therefore we always feel like we’re on the move with purpose behind every turn the songwriting initiates. This is when death/doom is great; it crafts these sorrowful soundscapes yet the songwriting doesn’t just come across like it’s needlessly wallowing in the interim; there is purpose and direction behind every change of chords even though we understand there are a plentiful of minutes still to occur before a track’s climax is upon us. It’s because of this reassurance of our time that the band can undergo these lengthy tracks since we aren’t wondering when the next eventful segment will happen; their songwriting is in a constant state of flux and songwriting that is occurring in the moment before your senses is always an engaging and interesting thing.
In conclusion, Onirophagus gift us a death/doom record that does plenty to stand out from a crowd that often sees ambiguous copies of cookie cutter death/doom metal acts in abundance. Revelations From The Void ticks numerous boxes of what people may expect prior to starting their journey here but there’s plenty to unpack within and plenty to appreciate. The band throw these ten and fifteen minute tracks at us and nowhere throughout those pieces do we wonder when the next eventful moment is, nor are we hoping for one track to end and another to begin. Onirophagus show us there’s more than one way to write and play death/doom just as there are as multiple ways of doing any other kind of metal subgenre. January can be hard to come by for quality releases, however this is one album worth checking out.
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