Lvcifyre – Svn Eater
With their 2nd full-length album, Svn Eater, England’s Lvcifyre have sent a blistering statement in the form of 9 crushing death anthems, convoluted by a minor black metal atmosphere sonically and augmented further by a pure darkness and endlessly tormented intensity that laps at the heavens with vengeful flames. The UK may not be as known for pure death metal such as this, but Lvcifyre have struggled through obscurity (very little PR) to secure a spot on Dark Descent’s excellent roster and are the perfect fit within the gristled musical pantheon Matt and crew have constructed. With the bleak outpouring of aggression and layered waves of dissonant riff storms, Lvcifyre have unearthed a potent opus eager for consumption.
Night Seas Sorcery starts off this album with a lengthy and twisted journey that embraces the snarled mid-range of black metal vocally and a metallic clanging bass tone. The song slowly builds, adding motion and consuming all light as the deep gutturalizations of the vocalist reclaim the foreground and the riffs turn even farther away from the suns warmth. Building speed and intricacy as it unfolds, Night Seas Sorcery acts as a long intro with substance that unlocks the gates for tracks like Chalice of Doom and Liber Lilith to tare all life asunder with barbaric/hard hitting speed and unique guitar work that skillfully walks the line between manically disjointed riffs and moving segments of music that are memorable within their own spectrum of cold void expression. As the album progresses, I cannot stress enough how “alive” this production sounds and simply how hard Lvcifyre are playing to achieve their tone and deliver their songs. After repeated listens, influences like older Morbid Angel surface in tracks like Nekuomanteion with it’s mid-paced, sharp double bass crawl initially and riffs that lurch and congeal into unique phrases that could have erupted from the mind of Trey Azagthoth, yet coming out more perverted/strange (in a good way). The pacing and tempo dynamics on this album are excellent and it helps to make this overly alienating sound seem a bit more palatable when setting out to comprehend the complex rituals so skillfully given life by this impressive quartet.
Lvcifyre may not be at the forefront (yet) of this eras endlessly tormented and constantly growing underground death metal movement, but with such a powerful body of material emanating from the molten core of Svn Eater, they are quickly ascending the ranks and consuming their way through this swarming horde on the grounds of solid/inventive songwriting and a delivery that feels like it is exploding out of the speakers with an intensity rarely experienced. Svn Eater is a damn good album that will appeal to fans of bands like Desolate Shrine, Maveth and Portal. My eyes have been opened and can now see the flames! -Marty
Dark Descent Records
Worm Gear 
Really excited about getting my hands on this one. Love the cover art. Timo did the Krypts album too. His dark coloring fits perfect with these types of bands. Couldn’t get a better combo of music and art on both counts!