Hadopelagyal, the German Black/Death Metal abyssal, subterranean and otherworldly grinders return with a 4-track EP. Musically, Hadopelagyal combines the bleak mysticism of Black Metal with the crushing weight and aggression of Death Metal. Their sound is characterized by uncanny cavernous riffing, relentless percussion, dissonant textures, and an oppressive sense of depth and darkness, merged ritualistic atmospheres with powerful, organically flowing songwriting, creating music that feels both violent and hypnotic.
‘Zalmathic Necroichorion’ is a successful continuation of the style established on ‘Haematophoryktos’: chaotic, abyssal/cataclysmic Black/Death Metal with strong War Metal tendencies, oppressive atmosphere, and a raw yet effective production. References to Impetuous Ritual, Teitanblood, Order From Chaos and occasionally War Metal aesthetics.
You’re catching my drift here. There are releases that invite the listener into their world, and there are releases that drag them screaming beneath the surface. ‘Zalmathic Necroichorion’ belongs firmly to the latter category. With this four-track descent into abyssal extremity, Hadopelagyal have not merely followed the path laid down on ‘Nereidean Seismic End’ album 2022 and ‘Haematophoryktos’ full-length 2025, they have burrowed even deeper into the lightless trenches that inspire their very name.
From the opening moments of ‘Heptaporous Deathchant’, the German duo unleashes a storm of violence so immediate and overwhelming that resistance becomes futile. Riffs arrive like collapsing tectonic plates, drums detonate in relentless and almost ritualistic salvos of blast beats, and the vocals emerge from some unfathomable chasm as a nightmarish amalgamation of cavernous growls and ritualistic invocations. The music does not flow so much as erupt, violently and without warning, from subterranean depths where Black Metal, Death Metal and War Metal coalesce into a single monstrous entity.
Yet what makes ‘Zalmathic Necroichorion’ so captivating is not merely its brutality. Many bands can play fast. Few can make extremity feel this immersive. Beneath the avalanche of distortion lies a meticulous architecture of tension and release, an oppressive atmosphere that continually shifts and mutates. The chaos is deliberate. The suffocation is calculated. Every blastbeat, every dissonant lead, every nauseating harmonic collision serves the larger purpose of pulling the listener further into Hadopelagyal’s abyssal vision.
‘Dakryopneumatic Canticles’ might be the EP’s definitive statement. Here, the band balances unrestrained ferocity with an almost ritualistic sense of space. The riffs seem to spiral endlessly downward while spectral layers emerge and disappear within the maelstrom. What initially appears to be pure devastation gradually reveals itself as something far more intricate and hypnotic. Like staring into black water long enough to see movement beneath the surface, repeated listens uncover details hidden within the murk.
The centerpiece ‘Tombwake Liturgeia’ expands this dynamic even further. Stretching into near-epic territory, the track demonstrates that Hadopelagyal are not content to simply pummel. Dissonant textures, chaotic solos, eerie melodic fragments and moments of oppressive anticipation transform the song into a genuine journey through sonic catacombs. The listener is led through collapsing tunnels and forgotten necropolises where every turn reveals a new horror.
Closing track ‘Dreadveil Ereboklast’ leaves the final wound. Here, the band reaches perhaps its most unsettling form, mixing crushing heaviness with bizarre spectral guitar sounds and abyssal vocal work that evokes something ancient and inhuman struggling to communicate through collapsing dimensions. The fade-out feels less like an ending than a disappearance, as though the music simply continues somewhere beyond human perception.
Comparisons to Portal and Teitanblood are inevitable, but Hadopelagyal increasingly sound like no one but themselves. They share the former’s disorienting labyrinthine atmosphere and the latter’s bestial force, yet filter those influences through a uniquely pelagic imagination. Their music feels drenched in pressure, darkness and movement, as if recorded in the deepest reaches of the hadal zone where sound itself is warped beyond recognition.
Equally impressive is the production. Despite operating close to total sonic collapse, the recording never dissolves into formless noise. Instead, the EP achieves a rare balance: raw enough to feel genuinely dangerous, yet clear enough to reveal the monstrous machinery driving the songs forward. One can appreciate both the oppressive wall of sound and the intricate details hidden within it.
At twenty-three minutes, ‘Zalmathic Necroichorion’ wastes neither time nor momentum. It is an exercise in total commitment, uncompromising in vision and devastating in execution. Hadopelagyal have crafted something that feels less like a conventional Black/Death Metal release and more like a transmission from the deepest reaches of a drowned underworld. Its atmosphere is claustrophobic, its intensity overwhelming, and its artistic conviction undeniable.
In a year crowded with excellent Extreme Metal releases, ‘Zalmathic Necroichorion’ stands as one of the most immersive and singular journeys into absolute darkness. This is not music for casual consumption. It is a plunge into crushing pressure, ritualistic violence and cosmic obscurity from which the listener emerges transformed, gasping desperately for air that no longer exists.
Disciples of the extreme and the unworldly know what to do…
