‘Nereidean Seismic End’ is the debut album from German Black/Death Metal band Hadopelagyal, a band that currently draws attention with its second full length, ‘Haematophoryktos’. It already displays the massive crushing guitar tones, the dense noise shroud and the grim production that would become part of their sound. Personally I praise this album for the sheer monotony of the tracks, for they increase the bulldozing effect of the music even further.
One could see the album as an attempt to sonically represent the hadopelagic zone: deep, crushing, abyssal. What’s undeniable is the album’s textural identity: a smothering, airless soundscape where riffs churn like tectonic plates and vocals echo like distant, dying signals. The record’s best moments, the central riff of ‘Blades Drawn…’, the eerie sprawl of the closer, hint at a more dynamic future, but even in its current form, ‘Nereidean Seismic End’ stands as a distinctive entry in the modern Black/Death Metal underground, uncompromising in its vision. ‘The Morning Carried a Feeble Sun…’ with its dissonance and suffocating atmosphere; ‘Intertidal Terrorrealm’ because of the low tuned melodies.
‘Haematophoryktos’ may go even further in variation and approach but this ‘Nereidean Seismic End’ with its barbaric flair deserves a spot in every Black/Death Metal collection.
Fans of Portal, Teitanblood, Impetuous Ritual and so on, really should add this album to their collection as it’s a gem.
