Captivating, consuming and demonic…
Released by Iron Bonehead Productions (Website; Facebook) on 21 October 2016
Review by Jason Guest
Just over two years after their debut demo (reviewed here), New Zealand’s nameless/faceless Verberis have delivered unto us their debut album. And it is fucking exceptional! Like the demo, it’s swathed in reverberating plague-infested atmospherics, cavernous vocals, down-tuned riffs, multi-layered guitar lines that tear at each other, and ruthless drumming. The rapid instrumental ‘Thanatosia’ opens proceedings and breathes an intense air into the album. And from here on in, Verberis unleash all kinds of nastiness.
Originally on the debut demo, the new versions of ‘The Primordial Rift’ and ‘Fangs of Pazuzu’ display just how far this band have come, these versions more refined and the production injecting them with even more vigour. Miasmic and mysterious, there’s a feel to this album that brings to mind the Lovecraftian hollows carved out by Head of the Demon. A mist thick with pollutants and preternatural entities, the blackened savagery and disconcerting soundscapes all benefit from the much-improved production and so the intricacies and nuances that Verberis have arduously carved into each track are at the fore. Enthralling and all-consuming, Verberis have delivered a demonic debut. The wait was worth it.
8 out of 10
Track list:
- Thanatosia
- The Primordial Rift
- Vexamen
- Protogonos
- Charnel Vibrations
- Flagellum de Igne
- The Gaping Hollow of Divinity
- Fangs of Pazuzu
- Vereri
- Voidwards
