Death Metal is a genre with a character problem. Too many bands build up an aesthetic and visual identity that the music never lives up to. Of course, this is to be expected in a genre so crowded with acts of varying quality, but even many of the biggest, most “popular” death metal bands. good as their music may be, fail to live up to the lyrical and visual content that accompanies it. However , there are a crop of modern bands that manage to successfully merge both sound and aesthetics. Acts like Blood Incantation, Father Befouled, Vastum, and Succumb all have a sound that manages to capture the harrowing intensity of their visual element. Another up and coming act in the scene is Our Place Of Worship Is Silence (hereafter referred to as OPoWiS), and while their debut album The Embodiment Of Hate was an excellent example of how this genre can be both punishing and atmospheric, the production left a bit to be desired. Thankfully, the band’s new album With Inexorable Suffering avoids the sophomore slump while improving on everything the band established with their first release.
The production and mix on With Inexorable Suffering is the first and most noticeable improvement to the band’s sound, reigning in the sometimes harsh and dry style of The Embodiment Of Hate and instead opting for a more organic, cavernous and natural sound. The mix is also impressive, with none of the individual instruments or vocals taking precedence over any others in the mix, and the end result does wonders for the excellent songwriting on display.
And the songwriting is indeed excellent, blending old-school death metal with dashes of grind and black metal, striking a fantastic and impressive balance between brutality and atmosphere, between visceral punishment and emotional intensity. The vocal delivery on With Inexorable Suffering is of particular note, refusing to be constrained to a single register or style, often leaning towards the more traditional death metal side of things, but with smatterings of hardcore, black metal and grind, the sheer amount of range and impressive performance would almost make the vocals the highlight of this album, if the instrumentals weren’t so good as well. And they are. Very, very good, especially the riffs.
The riffs. Oh dear lord, the riffs. With Inexorable Suffering starts at eleven and only gets more intense and memorable from there. Alternating between pummeling you into oblivion and grooves that will make you get up and move, this is some top-tier guitar playing and songwriting. These are musicians who truly love and understand the genres they’re playing with here, and it shows. The grind and black metal elements feel like completely natural additions to the death metal groundwork, and they never feel extraneous, whether or not they’re brief flourishes or entire passages. With Inexorable Suffering is a masterclass of modern metal, and Our Place Of Worship Is Silence are a band poised to become the next big thing in the subgenre of modern day old-school death metal. Check them out now so you can act smug to your friends when they inevitably blow up.
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With Inexorable Suffering is available 4/13 via Translation Loss Records.