Oppressive Descent – Sulfuric Wrath

Although Oppressive Descent was already founded back in 2008, the one-man project my workaholic Matt “Grond Nefarious” Schulte only really got wings during the years around the Covid19-pandemic. At least, when it comes to serious output. Between 2020 and 2022 well over ten releases appeared and a good portion of them also reached my ears, But, admittedly, the band never really appealed to me as I always thought things were a bit too simple, soulless and overall generic. That was also the case with Oppressive Descent’s last offering, the 2022-released fourth album ‘Spite Is My Scepter, Blood Is My Crown’; not quite what you could call a bad album, but something that goes down almost unnoticed.

With ‘Sulfuric Wrath’ Grond Nefarious returns with a new album, again released through the usually rather flawless Inferna Profundus Records. While it is quite easy to conclude that on this fifth full-length album, the band is presenting their best material to date, the problem remains largely the same. There are some solid riffs and nice melodies here and there and the overall production is quite fittingly raw and gritty, but the music never gets into the wow-territories. It largely feels like it just lingers on allowing your thoughts to wander off to all the household chores that still needs to be done.

On ‘Sulfuric Wrath’ Grond Nefarious sticks rather religiously to the musical course set on the last few releases, making it again a thoroughly riff-based exercise that leaves enough room for melodies and some necessary dynamics. And even while there are some tasteful arrangements and catchy moments, the music never really gets out of the more generic regions of the what the Black Metal genre has to offer nowadays. If this album was released some quarter of a century ago, it might have struck something special, but these days even a lot of those self-released digital demos and EP’s from one-man bedroom bands are offering more substantial Black Metal than Oppressive Descent is able to pull off.