The Drowning’s Vicious New Death/Doom Album Quickly Proves Earth-Rattling

The U.K.-based extreme metal group The Drowning pack a captivating portrait of crossing over into a “great beyond” on their crushing new album The Radiant Dark. They’ve elevated utterly suffocating foundations into an especially musically attention-grabbing and thereby (somehow) extra personalized work. It’s an immersive journey whose sheer force and artistic ambition will not just blast by in a whirl but drag you right along with it. Once you’ve dived in, you can’t escape these sonic onslaughts.

The group formed in the early 2000s and have now arrived to their fifth full-length album. On the truly thrilling The Radiant Dark, the band prove that they’ve finely developed their craft. After a gripping, atmosphere-setting intro track, The Drowning launch into extremely menacing, straightforward brutality. The band maintain epic doom metal atmosphere while simultaneously packing utterly gripping riffs right from the beginning. As their track “The Triumph of the Wolf in Death” proceeds, their unique synthesis shines brightly. Eventually, they jump into relentless metal shredding, but they never lose their sense of beastly grandiosity. They take the raw viciousness of the most suffocating death metal and make it huge. This beast isn’t just coming straight for the throat; it’s coming to rip you (or something…) to shreds.

You really get to feel the hits that the band deliver. By the time they arrive to their again slightly more sonically contemplative final track, listeners can feel the emotional exhaustion — it’s not just empty space. The Radiant Dark packs a powerfully defined, volatile journey.

The band expertly intertwine their menacing atmosphere with their devastating death metal riffage. At different points, the respective elements get their time in the spotlight, and sometimes, they shine right alongside one another. As the forces combine, The Drowning unveil a powerfully gripping vision of musically expressed utter desperation — the passionate opening to their album’s fourth track “In Cold Earth” exemplifies this outpouring of deeply originating release well. The whole track maintains the voluminous “epicness,” and it and the rest of the album sound like the actual soundtrack to sinking into the earth through a teeming vat of quicksand or something of the sort. It’s an adrenaline-packed, eye-opening experience. Palpable utter devastation is rarely so epic.

5/5 Stars

Check some out below. The album’s official release date is November 8 via Transcending Obscurity Records.