Release the chariots! Release the lions! Throw your javelins and swing those blades! The Lazio-based gladiators of the Roman Empire-themed Death Metal outfit Ade have swung open the heavy bronze gates once again for a fifth full-length outing. ‘Supplicium’ is a commanding beast of wildly technical performances, intensely complex compositions and a sheen of additional vestigial Romanesque instrumentation. Now I will be honest, I was not at all familiar with the band Ade prior to this particular album finding its way into my consciousness. Formed in 2007, the thematic focus of this outfit’s music has always been centred around the often violent and perverse events during the darker periods of their country’s ancient history. Ade takes these bloody events and infuses them into the DNA of their skilfully and attentively crafted Brutal Death Metal.
It has taken me a significant amount of time to get my head around Supplicium and the album has many facets that command a scrupulous level of attention from its listeners. The many layers of detail present not just amongst the standard heavy instruments, but in the production, and also the level of research that has obviously been applied to these song themes is nothing short of astounding. So to that end… How the hell have I only recently discovered this group?! Obviously, a quality techy Death Metal band making music about ancient history is inevitably going to draw comparisons to Nile. In a superficial sense, the similarities in this example are somewhat easy to draw. The octave power chord-driven riffs and very low-tuned tuned thick and thunderous bass notes of the opening track ‘Ave Dis Pater’ are overtly Nilesque. It would however, be an utterly silly task to overlook the quality of music Supplicium has to offer in light of those superficial likenings.
As the album progresses through the track list there is an ever-present sense that Ade are opening a very wealthy vault of ideas that only seem to spill out with more of a blood flowing gusto as the album progresses. Track three ‘Ad Bestias!’ announces itself like some sort of mad emperor, with a classical guitar introduction before the fierce Death Metal instrumentation follows suit and the dissonant scales of the whiplash-inducing lead riffs slap and assault you in the face like a pitiful slave facing a merciless whipping. The song ends with a reverb-heavy, gang vocal refrain of its titular wording atop converging instrumentation. The track ‘Patibula’ is a moment of particular intrigue where the band allows a pained and ancient-sounding vocal wailing to take centre stage during one moment as the surrounding instrumentation shines in a progression of polyrhythmic wizardry. All throughout the song the twanging strings and embellishments of archaic percussion permeate the mix without ever becoming distracting. I’d like to remark that the implementation of alternative instrumentation throughout the record has been handled brilliantly so that it really imbues Supplicium with the heart of an experience that is as beautifully unique as it is brutally bloodthirsty.
If I were to really express everything that I feel is worth mentioning in my review for this album, then it could easily become my longest stretch of writing so far for VM Underground. There is simply that much to unpack here. I’ll add a spoiler-free note that the final two tracks on Supplicium ‘From Fault To Disfigurement’ and ‘Taedium Vivere’ are without doubt the best songs on the album. ‘Supplicium’, when considered as a whole experience, feels as if you are locked in a chamber with a hoard of masterfully painted old Roman pottery. The black depictions on the various clay vases, pots and trinkets are all brought to life, vividly recounting the most despicable and deprived acts of this once powerful civilisation. For fans of Tzompantli, Nile and Brodequin.
