Review by Lawrence Stillman on February 3, 2024.

Nowhere near my favourite album of 2022, but considering that I love me some death/doom, covering this album is pretty much inevitable. Especially riff based death/doom that combines both the goodness of OSDM and the depressing side of doom. These guys from Florida do not mess around; it sounds as necro as the album art suggests.

The music here is either sleep-inducingly slow, or as fast as an OSDM song, with nothing in-between. As much as I love these slow sections, I have to admit that sometimes they make the album a slog to listen through if you are not prepared for them. But when I am in the mood for it, it is very catchy, very filthy, and slimy—exactly what I want in a death/doom album. The music is full of reverb, sounding very cavernous and ancient, it gives off this raw feeling that makes it sound more menacing and evil.

While the album screams Winter worship, they did modernise their sound and production for the modern era. The instruments are no longer as raw and primitive as what bands did during the 90s, which makes it easier to sit through for a modern audience. The musicianship also improved tremendously; the song lengths are now shorter and more compressed to avoid any padding, making the songs easier to listen to on their own without boring the listener. I do like the use of synths during some of the tracks, which is a new approach for what is usually a pretty set-in-stone genre. Although I do wish the band would do something more creative regarding the riffs, considering the songs themselves are still very good, the complaint itself does sound pretty nitpicky. Sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel to create good music.

This album is a very good riff-focused death/doom album if you do not mind the heavy amounts of Winter influence that are present here. While not an album like "When A Shadow..." or "Mental Funeral", I do hope they continue doing this style of death/doom, since not many bands do this approach of equal parts doom and death that complement each other perfectly.

Highlights: 'Festering Tombs', 'Monarch Macabre', 'Relics Of The Dead'

Rating: 8.8 out of 10