If you were a fan of Germany’s Rotting Demise and their 2023 self-released debut, My Whole Wrath, you might be in for a bit of a shock for the follow-up, The Unholy Veil of Silence, also self-released.

Not a bad thing, but the band’s style of chuggy, sometimes Bolt Thrower-y death metal has all but gone, in favor of full-on symphonic black metal. Not kidding. Costumes and all.

And they actually pulled the shift off very well, with a sound that now compares to the likes of recent bands like Argesk– so leaning a little into the Hecate Enthroned, early Cradle of Filth sound. And this is immediately prevalent on the vocals of ‘Silence’, who has adopted a hawkish shriek akin to Dani Filth and Jon Kennedy (RIP).

He uses a deeper, gruffer bellow here and there (i.e, “The Devil’s Verdict”, “Nailed and Forgotten”), as Kennedy did with Hecate, but when you throw in the full-on keyboards, tremelo-picked riffs, and more blasphemous/anti-religious black metal themes rather than death metal ones, they are a completely different-sounding band. “Valak Regnat” is the only track that seems to have some death metal remnants, as far as the bare-bones riffage, but even then, it’s layered with synths.

But I’m still digging it, as they knock out some bangers such as “Gods Falling Kingdom”, “Lucifer’s Dawn”, “Death Hunts Us All”, ” Monument Without Fears”, and even a cover of members’ former band Atrium Noctis, “In Memoriam Moriendi” to end the solid album on a moodier note.

[Visit the band's website]

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