Standing on the threshold of knowledge and confrontation, of understanding and terror…the steps head downwards, only the first few visible before the descent is lost in a sudden, impossible and impenetrable darkness as rich as kraken’s ink and as all consuming as the grave. The air beneath the archway’s keystone tastes of desperation and regret, a last, forbidding yet invisible barrier. But decisions have been taken and promises have been made. With a shuddering intake of breath you begin to move…one step, two steps…into the black.
It has been six years since Nottingham duo Shrykull released their caustic, self-titled debut album, but finally the second chapter of their tale has been written…a cataloguing of the horrors of both inner and outer space, a journal of time spent Beyond Subconscious Realms. Opening in an imposing wall of reverberating sludge, ‘Blockading The Kingdom Of Infinite Space’ sets the tone for what is to follow, bursting from its swamp into a savage black/death metal attack, a tapestry of ripped flesh riffs held together by sinew and congealed blood. The two-piece band format helps to keep a sense of space within the Shrykull sound, meaning that while clinging onto the careering death train of ‘Id Hammer’, with its carriages of the damned swaying as it thunders down the buckled tracks of bone, you remain aware of vast, tortured landscapes surrounding you, nightmares flashing past as you ride punked up riffs into oblivion. Despite being constructed from the essential, stripped skeleton of drums, guitar and vocals, Beyond Subconscious Realms also manages to conceal hidden, abyssal depths within its frantic progress. With each track falling directly into the gaping maw of the next, there’s no exit door, no distracting light to draw you from the visceral tableau of the grotesque. Classic death metal traits rear up like rudely awakened ghouls from the murk of ‘Gateway Of Nightmares’ and in the aptly named ‘Chaotic Disforms Of Cosmic Misalignment’ these same death metal characteristics morph into something ‘other’ as the song shapeshifts like an agent of chaos or a crypt-bound creature of mind rending uncertainty of form. The tarnished majesty of final track ‘Collective Fugue State’ even reaches its blood stained hands towards a fading glimpse of beauty, bringing an unexpected aura of tragedy to Beyond Subconscious Realms’ final moments.
The depth, dimensions and decimating power of Beyond Subconscious Realms were captured by Ian Boult (Wolvencrown, Foul Body Autopsy, Mage etc) at Stuck On A Name Studios – with Boult having done such fine work on Shrykull’s debut album, continuing with this working relationship was, in the band’s words, ‘a no-brainer’. It’s a decision that has reaped incredible rewards. The band also reached out again to artist Luke Oram (Sigiriya, Live Burial etc) to continue the work he began on Shrykull - and he has produced a stunning, expansive piece to adorn what is a genuinely exceptional album. Beyond Subconscious Realms will be released on CD and vinyl by Road To Masochist and cassette by Eggy Tapes, on November 8th. Prepare for bad dreams, harsh truths and even harsher riffs.
Comments