Album Review: "Dimensions Obscure 12" MLP" by Cadeveric Fumes

Dimensions Obscure 12" MLP

Music is the most ubiquitous art form in the world today.

When we clean the kitchen, our phones are playing. When car manufacturers and dealers want to sell us our next automobile, they play a song in order to catch our attention.

Is it even possible to conceive of a baseball game or a hockey game without some sort of music blaring during the stoppages, either via organ or canned tracks?

There is a genre of music called Ambient Black Metal. As pretty much a non-fan of black metal, this kind of music really gets to me....because it's beautiful.

What if there was another kind of ambient metal based on say, death metal? It would certainly have to be very different from standard death metal though wouldn't it? Surely there is no band that could bridge the gap in today's music scene.

Cadaveric Fumes

Most death metal comes rough hewn and angry.

The blast beats, the requisite, genre defining, convention, can permeate the entirety of the music.

The guitars are loud, rough, feature more solos than Buddy Guy cutting heads with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The vocals, the most oft derided part of extreme metal, flood the landscape. Poor death metal records sound like someone growling over a blast beat and a snare drum.

It's impossible to think this music could be ambient, but what if the script was changed slightly.

The vocals, while still harsh and demanding, are lowered into the mix, delivered with a bit more musicality, and lock into the rhythm and the groove of the music.

The drums are lowered creating more atmospheric sounds. Instead of snare drums that snap and bass drums that bang, the older, softer sound is put in and the drums power and fuel the sound instead of being the sound.

So, what's left front and center is the guitars. They are varied. Traditional, alternate picked death riffs cohabitate with hooks, classical licks, and sludgy chord progressions.

All along the over the top solos are teased, but the guitar licks are little more than sprinkles atop of a pyramid of sonic bombast. Never do we receive the full on blast that was prophesied, but there are a fair few awe inspiring riffs to be had. Just pay attention.

This mini album featuring only 3 tracks clocks in at nearly one Reign In Blood.

Come feast at the table, but you're going to leave hungry for more. Thankfully, there will always be more graveyards to plunder.

Release: 5/2/16
Genre: Ambient Death Metal
Label: Blood Harvest
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