{"id":69043,"date":"2018-06-08T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=69043"},"modified":"2018-06-25T00:04:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T00:04:20","slug":"album-review-taphos-come-ethereal-sombreness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-taphos-come-ethereal-sombreness\/","title":{"rendered":"TAPHOS – Come Ethereal Sombreness (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAPHOS
Come Ethereal Sombreness<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nBlood Harvest (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The title of this album doesn\u2019t suggest I\u2019m going to be in for a happy adventure; Come Ethereal Sombreness<\/em> being the long-awaited debut slab from Danish death metallers Taphos.<\/p>\n

After a quick introduction (\u2018Letum\u2019) we get chainsawed into little pieces by the juddering bulldozer that is the gnashing \u2018Impending Peril\u2019; a vicious, cold and clammy descent into the album cover artwork which showcases all levels of subterranean gloominess. The fast-paced structure is led by the rasping vocal blurts of \u201cH\u201d, before a melancholic passage interrupts until we return back to the hammering grind.<\/p>\n

This is catchy, hellish death metal that bridges numerous cracks between Finnish, Norwegian and German styles of blackened extremity as dark, thrashing waves consume the listener. Manic segmentation gives way to sinister rolls of doominess as \u2018Thrive In Upheaval\u2019 comes rattling and hammering in blistering fashion, and is arguably the fastest expression on the opus with the relentless whacks of \u201cU\u201d on drums.<\/p>\n

Taphos plumbs the depths of cold desperation and brackish, blackish seething. Their unharmonious chugs leak like fetid ooze as the twin guitar demons cavort in despicable and miserable fashion, a bleak, flailing solo escaping from the chilly cracks before the combo resorts once again to a speed metal outburst.<\/p>\n

The grotesque \u2018Ocular Blackness\u2019 is a dank cascade of slower tones; expressions of morbidity fluent as the outfit slurs its way like grim slurry before the foul odours of those frantic axe chords come fluttering like manic, rabid bats. It\u2019s heavy and fast, thrashy and cavernous, while \u2018A Manifest Of Trepidation\u2019 melodiously flirts with melancholy with its wailing siren of a guitar before become bathed in a squalid, hellish rush \u2013 the vocals nodding at some mid 80s Teutonic thrash rasp, laced with gruffer tones.<\/p>\n

The acoustic \u2018Dysfori\u2019 provides respite from the speedy noise, which returns with the furious gales of \u2018Insidious Gyres\u2019 and then \u2018Livores\u2019. Both are bile-soaked, grime-caked entities \u2013 the former a hasty retreat into the black caverns, while the latter begins with a more menacing mid-tempo prowess before transforming into a jarring and almost elusive stab of a track propelled by its manky drum kicks and windy guitar tones of morbidity.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no interest in aping old school designs here as Taphos effortlessly blend black metal aesthetics with grim, foreboding chunks of deathly malevolence. Only the crypts of Hades can fully ring out to such an unearthly clamour; a soundtrack that more than lives up to its name.<\/p>\n

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

TAPHOSCome Ethereal Sombreness Blood Harvest (2018)Rating: 8\/10 The title of this album doesn\u2019t suggest I\u2019m going to be in for a happy adventure; Come Ethereal Sombreness being the long-awaited debut slab from Danish death metallers Taphos. After a quick introduction (\u2018Letum\u2019) we get chainsawed into little pieces by the juddering bulldozer that is the gnashing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3972],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-taphos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69043","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=69043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69045,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69043\/revisions\/69045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}