Album Review: Prophetic Suffering - Rivalry Of Thyself
Reviewed by Sam Jones
So this record only came to my attention a day prior to acquiring it for reviewing. As soon as I heard a teaser of it I knew I needed it. Previously named Kurt Gobang, the band renamed themselves to Prophetic Suffering as of 2021, hailing from Alberta, Canada. The band’s first Demo released the following year and in the years since Prophetic Suffering have succeeded in landing themselves on a major record label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories. Featuring some wicked artwork, Rivalry Of Thyself is the band’s first full length release and appears destined to rivet legions of fans with their black/death metal attack come May 9th. I’m a sucker for all things dark and cavernous and thus I strode in with anticipatory glee.
Are you a fan of bass? Because if you are you’ve struck the motherlode with this record as Prophetic Suffering throw an utter tidal wave of it at your face, and the onslaught only intensifies as their ferocity continues to climb. Their bass drums might as well be glued to your very eardrums they feel that close to you. As a result, when the bass drums join in with the blast beats and cacophonous guitar work, it really is akin to a mounted machine gun firing off whole magazines of ammunition in rapid succession. With that said however, Prophetic Suffering’s soundscape doesn’t feel so heavy on the bass that it threatens to drown the rest of the album. Rivalry Of Thyself is more than audible and intelligible to the ear, its scale though isn’t so vast that we can’t form a strong grasp on what’s occurring or where they’re still leading us.
What did surprise me considering the kind of cavernous soundscape Prophetic Suffering work with, is the diversity of track lengths. Often when you discover a record like this it’s commonplace for the band in question to write more elongated, atmospheric-imbuing pieces that really enable their immersion to take you in entirely. But you have a track like “Foul” where it doesn’t last ninety seconds, yet fully utilises the crushing aesthetic. Incorporating this approach shows us not every track on record here is going to slam our faces in for minutes and minutes at a time. Prophetic Suffering might be black/death metal to the nth degree but there’s an additional Grindcore element I wasn’t expecting. Regardless what length of track the band opt for their, songwriting relentlessly pulls you further in, breaking bones and slicing your cerebellum. But it also depicts a record that isn’t seeking its atmosphere to be its sole strength as they demonstrate confidence in their ability to destroy us without having to keep us immersed and annihilated for too long a time.
As far as vocals are concerned it’s best not to view them as a delivery one wishes to listen closely into, for you’re not going to decipher much owing to both the record’s mix and the guttural, visceral deliveries that go into the performance. It’s a nice change to hear a change-up to the usually expected bellowing bark such records are renowned for, where Rivalry Of Thyself implements something lighter yet scathing, offset by the usual guttural, vomitous performance that blends seamlessly into Prophetic Suffering’s putrid mire. The vocals bleed easily into the instrumentation, clearly intentional on the band’s part since it never tries to break through or above the incessant punishment their riffs offer up. Together with the drums and guitar tone it paints Rivalry Of Thyself as a record that’s constantly bleeding, relishing in delicious torment.
What might surprise people is just how quick-paced this record is. Granted, the band aren’t looking to stick around overly long as, owing to the track lengths and tempo, that’s not their prerogative. But with that said the band have seemingly thrown away any idea of giving their soundscape a defined shape; this album is energy at its most primal, it’s most raw and unleashed, without form nor concept nor shape. Plunging oneself into Rivalry Of Thyself is reminiscent to throwing light unto black holes; it’s gone forever, distorted, spaghettification unfolds. The band utterly relish in chaos and the near-directionless space they’ve crafted where only death is real. Before you realise it, the record is done and behind you and you’ll find yourself doubting you truly experienced it in its entirety because there’s no way it could be done that quickly. Surely not? Yet it is and given its rapid speed, it gives you that additional incentive to go back and check it out all over again. By keeping their record explicitly concise Prophetic Suffering ensure fans can return to that cacophonous malice, that incredible pressure in their senses, knowing they’ll have a great time but also their senses will be destroyed just enough that it won’t put them off returning.
In conclusion, as Prophetic Suffering close out their debut full length work to a fading guitar wail akin to far-off detonations, it reminds us just how volatile of a record this has been. With no track featuring any special fanfare to indicate their beginnings or end Prophetic Suffering hit like a cement brick to the head. Yet even with that dense atmosphere baring down on us at any given moment it’s still amazing as to how quick their tracks can play; even their three – four minute pieces might as well be half as long given the tempo they play at. If it isn’t being played with blast beats and the most vicious vocals they can throw at us then it’s not included here. Rivalry Of Thyself is an evil and thoroughly apathetic release that does not give one care for you and thus your survival is down to your own internal grit. A compellingly archaic, ruthless record.
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