Second, Valdur has quickly released their 6th album, barely a year after their last effort, Divine Cessation, came out. How’s that for production?

Third, the band appears to have swung the pendulum ever so slightly back towards their black metal roots from the pure, noisy atonal death metal murk of Divine Cessation.

While the cavernous vocals are still here, the guitars appear to be not as down-tuned and there are more shrill, tremolo-picked ish riffs rather than pure dirty lurches and rumbles. Sure there are some, but its much more of a black/death balanced record than the predecessor. Just listen to opener “Divine Halls of Obscurity pt.I” or disturbing experimental instrumental ish number “Spiritual Exhaust (The Beyond)”. Heck, the riffs from “Inhale the Floodgates Open” could be from Ulver’s notorious second record.

Also, like its predecessor, the album is 6 songs and about a 37 minute run time. So its a very brisk, brittle, but spiteful little record. These prolific Californians (metal archives lists 17 releases since 2015) have have hit a nasty, noisy niche since 2015s Pathetic Scum, but I’m curious if the band can continue being so productive and vicious without a drop off in quality.

Divine Cessation would sit nicely along side the likes of Auroch or Abyssal, as it has a cavernous, chaotic prose and deep, distant, imposing roars with just a hint black metal atmosphere. The Incantation-y lurches and blasts meld with discordant, murky tremolo blasts, that are black metal in backbone, but rip with the stench of putrid and ugly death metal dissonance.

There is little to no memorability (and no more Scandinavian song titles), just a muddy, dark ritualistic pulse and throb as heard in the crushing 7 minute title track (one of three tracks clocking in over 7 minutes) or the aptly named “Seething Disgust”. The shorter “Doomed” changes things up (or down?) a bit with a crawling instrumental that has some Incantation-isms, before another short track, “Plague Born of a Dying Star” seems to have a little more influence of the the band’s earlier style with  some screams and some higher tuned riffs.

Almost 8 minute Closer” Potent Black Orb” finds the perfect balance between the tidal murk of the first 4 tracks though it wastes the middle couple and final or so minutes with electronic ambient nonsense. Still, Divine Cessation is a killer release from a band that has made a successful transition between styles with impressive results.

Lightning Swords of Death is up first on the disc, so lets start there. Atmospheric, that most overused of words, fits well here, as does melodic. Just listen to the guitar leads on “Paths to Chaos” near the end of the thirteen and a half minutes especially. As for the atmosphere, that is the entirety of the album, an atmospheric disk that one can mosh to. Excellent musicianship, very good flow to the songs, especially the shorter ones, and a ton of effort is what becomes obvious on first listen. The two ten minute plus songs both have obviously had a lot of passion and dedication to the craft poured into them. The first is the above mentioned song, the second I’ll get back to later since it is a Valdur song, “Raven God Amongst Us.” LSOD has a militant edge, especially pronounced through the drumming, and precision is just as important as ripping your face off.

There is an abrupt shift to “Raven God Amongst Us” to introduce the second half of the split, much more straight up fast black metal, with not nearly as much of the thrash elements in evidence. The slow breaks still propel forward, everything here is about speeding you on your way. The vocals are a bit distant, buried behind the drums. I like the loud drums. I just would like the vocals a bit louder as well. The music is tight, thunderous at times, a good match for the lightning half, cacophonous at other points. Abrupt starts and stops, quick time changes, and some nice swirling turns to dump you on your head, melodic leads sprinkled here and there, hard driving and somber moments, all show off the skill level of the guitarist and bassist.

A trait both bands share is to let the guitars and drums speak in their own voices without continuously being shouted down by the vocals, makes me love the long songs. If your song can’t stand alone as an instrumental first and you feel the need to hide the lack of musicality behind a wall of continuous screamage, well several hundred similar thinkers release material each year. Both of these bands understand that actively not using vocal lines is just as important or more so than using them. Just listen to “Spears Torrent” (Valdur) and imagine it with an overdone barking of repeated lyrics, where the voice is it works great, where the voice is not also works great.

I’ll admit to being stuck in a cave of my own for awhile when it comes to new American bands and I missed hearing about both these bands. You can bet I’ll be looking up the previous full length releases by both bands. Favorite songs, “Paths to Chaos”, “Raven God Amongst Us”, “Chant of Battlelust.” Don’t just sit there, order this disc.