Fossilization – Leprous Daylight

Fossilization, what is the definition of the word fossilization exactly?

Fossilization – noun – the process of fossilizing a plant or animal that existed in some earlier age; the process of being turned to stone. 

Or otherwise described by what Scientific American said on January 11th of 2023; “The fossilization process is an unrelenting slog of decay, compression and erosion that can take millions of years and favors the preservation of tough material such as bones, teeth and shells.” Now, what does any of this have to do with Fossilization the band you may ask? A lot I would say.

But first let us cover something that doesn’t have anything to do with the idea above and that just so happens to be their productivity. Fossilization the band started out life in the year 2020, where this two piece got busy writing. That effort ended up being their outstanding debut EP ‘He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten’ which came out in 2021. Next came a killer split with Ritual Necromancy in 2022 and now in 2023 we are getting the first full-length with the absolutely stellar ‘Leprous Daylight’. So, yeah, they have been busy and productive in a rather quick manner, which has nothing do with the overall theme I’m going for but it’s here, so we’ll deal with it.

Now to get back to the regular scheduled train of thought. At a base level, the absolute most basic description of what the band Fossilization sound like would have to be an “unrelenting slog of decay, compression and erosion” otherwise know as Cavernous Death/Doom Metal ala the band Incantation. But that is just a very basic and rather easy way to describe something that is so much more sad, erosive and deeper, something that takes many more listens, much more time, to truly understand.

Then and only then, after those multiple listens and time to compress what is really there within ‘Leprous Daylight’ do we begin to find the traces and remnants of what truly underlies the real sound and feel of Fossilization. Some of those findings have either to do with growth and progression of the band over the three short years they have been around and some discoveries have to do with the fossil records of the person’s within the band background and heritage.

The findings of growth and progression lead is to more aggressive and fast pace style of Death/Doom Metal more akin to Dead Congregation than Incantation while retaining the sadness and despair that has always been there. And the discoveries lead is to an integration of their Brazilian Death Metal heritage with touches of Escarnium and Krisiun popping in here and there, they might be not as noticable but they are there for sure.

This new full-length album, ‘Leprous Daylight’, is a huge discovery in the world of Death/Doom Metal, where the skeletal remains of the past remain but a exoskeleton of new growth has added another layer of crustified goodness. Where the major focus of progression was placed in songwriting that focused on being more aggressive and lethal while still maintaining that slog and sadness that Fossilization are known for.

This is what we all want to see out of a band’s normal progression, with the consistency of older material and a noticable and impressive improvement across the board, from the quality of the songwriting, the individual performances, to the overall sound and presentation of the album as a whole. And that whole is extremely fucking good.

Like seriously, ‘Leprous Daylight’ is a fucking outstandingly good album. Quite possibly one of the best albums to come out in the Death/Doom Metal subgenre of all time. Yeah, I said it and I mean it.