Verberis were spawned sometime in 2014 and have been somewhat of an enigma ever since. This latest release sees the band expose their souls in the form of just 2 tracks, yet they manage to span a monstrous 32 minutes. DA is the main mastermind behind the mystery and anonymity that shrouds the band, and all this mystery adds an air of excitement to the release.
‘Vorant’ starts with a steady gradual incline in the aural sounds, until it finally reaches a heavy crunching assault on the senses. The backbone to the skeletal structure is doomy and plodding for the most part of the track, and it is slow and methodical in its beauty. The vocals lie in the background as if stalking the listener, reminiscent of a cheetah stalking a springbok. The vocals are growling and reverberate around the tympani’s like a howling wind in the northern most wasteland of a barren landscape.
Mid song the tempo rises and it switches to a more traditional raw black metal style, with the music being chilling and haunting, and the vocals demonic in their portrayal; after a little outburst, it slows right back down again to a doomy funeral procession, and they eventually sign the track off with a sparse bare guitar doodle.
‘Gnosis’ is the real behemoth on the release and at over 21 minute, it makes ‘Vorant’, a 10 minute plus effort, seem like a short sharp shock that wouldn’t go amiss in a Napalm Death back catalogue release.
They start ‘Gnosis’ with another haunting guitar doodle, and it leaves the release opened up and stripped bare, leaving nowhere for the band to hide, and hide they do not with this mesmerising and melancholy effort. They disclose more raw and traditional black metal, even more so than in the opener, and they deliver it with more venom and pace which all adds to a more evil event.
The vocals still lie in the background, in the deserted wasteland, and this highlights the fact that this is more about the music than the vocal talents, and as such, the music is more than capable of engaging the listener throughout. There are masses of guitar skills on show and the drums seem to be the ice which keeps this barren endeavour firmly stuck in the snowdrifts.
This is a complex and intricate release which commands your soul from the start of the expedition to the end of the gruelling auditory voyage, and let it be known that you need to respect this in all its fragments in order to make any sense of it, because if not it, it will be easily misinterpreted
(6/10 Phil Pountney)
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