{"id":18643,"date":"2014-03-10T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=18643"},"modified":"2014-05-20T12:08:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T12:08:34","slug":"album-review-shroud-of-the-heretic-revelations-in-alchemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-shroud-of-the-heretic-revelations-in-alchemy\/","title":{"rendered":"SHROUD OF THE HERETIC – Revelations In Alchemy (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHROUD OF THE HERETIC
Revelations In Alchemy<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nBlood Harvest (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Be afraid, be very afraid! Shroud Of The Heretic is a mighty death metal band who has just released this crushing seven-track debut album.<\/p>\n

The band hails from Portland, Oregon, and formed back in 2011. After an impressive EP, 2012\u2019s Boiled To Death<\/em>, they\u2019ve now created this monstrous opus that combines unearthly death metal with cavernous doom. The trio \u2013 consisting of Thom (bass \/ vocals), Lauren (drums) and JT (guitar) \u2013 make a right ol\u2019 racket on this 40-minute slab.<\/p>\n

The album kicks off with the gargantuan strains of \u2018The Arrival\u2019, which descends from the sky like some bestial blob beyond the imagination before we\u2019re dragged from our homes by the slithering mess that is \u2018Heretical Screams\u2019, an unapologetic hole of sludge, slurry and discharge that features ungodly drums of gloom, guttural, resonant vocals and a bass that extracts the bones from the body. Throughout this album, Shroud Of The Heretic merely exist to batter the crap out of the listener, not once allowing us to submit but simply reducing our sorry carcass to a pile of ash.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s \u2018Chaotic Astral Ascension\u2019, the monolithic \u2018Illuminism\u2019 or the vile title track, these guys just know how to wield together stark passages that sprawl across the room like cumbersome and yet unrecognisable Lovecraftian horrors. The bile-soaked \u2018Blasphemous Rebirth\u2019 leaves a trail of sodden dirt back to its astral grave and brings this fusty composition to a halt. <\/p>\n

While not in the same gloomy bracket as the 2014 Spectral Tower self-titled debut<\/a>, Shroud Of The Heretic still carve out similar soundscapes which rely heavily on those echoing, bestial vocals and dissonant, eerie guitar chords which once strummed seem to ripple through the body like some wayward, invasive and terribly ravenous parasite. <\/p>\n

The whole congregation that consists of deathlier rattles and doomier reverberations is one that enables these guys to tower over their victims like some ascending spectre of arrogance. There\u2019s nary a moment where the listener can pop their head above the congealing surface for a breath, such is the thick, enveloping nature of this sordid beast. <\/p>\n

Far too unearthly and bleak to be deemed death metal and yet somehow too abrasive to be considered strictly doom metal, and with Thom\u2019s aching growl, Revelations In Alchemy<\/em> gives us a real sense of eerie unease. Hardly communicable, Shroud Of The Heretic\u2019s debut lump is just happy to creep along like a cloud of foreboding darkness that any minute could have you engulfed in one putrid gulp. Where it comes from no-one really knows, but now that it\u2019s here it\u2019s something we cannot avoid, so run for your life because this agonising experience is one that\u2019ll paint towns black.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHROUD OF THE HERETICRevelations In Alchemy Blood Harvest (2014)Rating: 8\/10 Be afraid, be very afraid! Shroud Of The Heretic is a mighty death metal band who has just released this crushing seven-track debut album. The band hails from Portland, Oregon, and formed back in 2011. After an impressive EP, 2012\u2019s Boiled To Death, they\u2019ve now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-shroud-of-the-heretic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18646,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions\/18646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}