Review: Conjureth ‘Majestic Dissolve’
The debut full-length from California’s Conjureth, following two well received demos last year, is out this October, 25th, through Memento Mori (CD) and Rotted Life Records (vinyl and cassette). The band features members who’ve done time in groups like Encoffination, Ghoulgotha, and VoidCeremony, so it bodes well for the death metal lurking beneath Majestic Dissolve‘s wonderfully eldritch album cover.
Immediately you’re struck by the sense that Conjureth respect the origins of the genre in a way that you don’t often see. This isn’t your old school death metal that is just simplistic caveman riffs and guttural vocals, but a true poem of violence to the late 80s. The thrashy Possession Pyschosis is exactly what I mean; brutal and with the odd technical flamboyance, but a generally straightforward bruiser of a track.
There’s a direct to the jugular bulldozing apparent at all times, where the drum and bass combine into a potent propulsive weapon for the guitars and the surprisingly coherent vocals wield to maximum effect. I especially like the crushing Mutilated Spirits or the Floridian Black Fire Confessions which feels like it’s been wrought from the frets of Trey Azagthoth himself.
Majestic Dissolve is a true triumph of death…
Morbid Angel hangs high above this record as an obvious influence, but there’s definitely a bit of every scene that was sparking to life in the late 80s. You’ve got a little Possessed in there on the death thrashing The Silent Hangings, some proto-Cannibal Corpse-isms on the fiery complexities of Sorcery Arts, and even the melancholic mark of Finland in the soulless gloom of The Unworshipped. But as pure old-fashioned death metal fury goes, you’d be pressed to find a better example than An Occult Mosaic this year. Bursting with frantic screams and rabid riffing, it somehow becomes a Bolt Thrower-esque rumbling monster at the same time. An utterly spellbinding moment.
Majestic Dissolve is an album that will probably give you a big shit eating grin while you listen to it. Conjureth have somehow managed to capture the lightning in a bottle, that intangible sense that every OSDM band is striving for but can’t get. It never feels like a lazy retread of past glories, more like a triumphant gory rebirth of what death metal was and could be again. Majestic Dissolve is a true triumph of death.
Label: Memento Mori | Rotted Life Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Sandy Williamson