Desecresy – Towards Nebulae (2019)

Bands that possess both unique style and substance, since these are usually related, face difficulty in maintaining consistency because over time the content builds on previous ideas, and therefore the style slowly mutates. The best bands do so while maintaining continuity to the past and toward the idea they seek to explore.

Desecresy returns with an album that is less mystical than previous works and more heavy metal at the same time adding interesting forms of technicality, as if hoping to delve into a particular atmosphere through not focusing on it directly so that over time, consistency and change can coexist in their work.

Towards Nebulae picks up where previous works left off, but where those were going into more of a sense of ritual and naturalistic ambience, this new album attempts to bring in the last three generations of metal music and adapt them to the Desecresy style, as if building a vocabulary for what comes next.

The characteristic downstroke-heavy riffs that avoid getting into speed metal territory by positioning themselves in cadence rather than syncopation do their work here, creating a looming presence of implacable inertia, while allowing the melodic fills to rise and supplement the main theme of each song.

Much as was done on Death Spiritual Healing, each song has a distinctive main figure which states a version of its theme, and an introduction which takes half of that theme and works it into something ornamental which produces a sense of mystery before the song develops.

Like previous albums, Towards Nebulae concentrates on sliding us into an atmosphere and then interrupting that in order to both build conflict and make the listener long for the normality of the dominant mood, which makes these songs both infectious and immersive.

Of all the recent Desecresy works, this album most closely approximates the approach achieved on their first, Arches of Entropy, by forming a wall of sound from distorted lower-frequency power chords and hoarse grumbling vocals from which the core of the song descends, producing a different type of music.

Many have sought an ambient form of heavy metal, but Desecresy seem to have achieved it. While the more esoteric material from previous albums takes less of a presence here, the power of the union of form and content gives Desecresy a powerful voice and makes this an enjoyable escapist death metal album.

See also: Interview with Desecresy (2015), The Mortal Horizon (2017), Stoic Death (2015), Arches of Entropy (2010), Chasmic Transcendence (2014).

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11 thoughts on “Desecresy – Towards Nebulae (2019)”

  1. Cynical says:

    Haha, the album cover has Goatse on it.

    1. Flying Kites says:

      As a scholar and mystic of Goatse, I hadn’t noticed!

    2. thomasw says:

      haha! now I can never unsee the nasty gap on this LP cover :)

    3. Penny for Your Thots says:

      That must be the “secrecy” they’ve negated.

  2. papa bare says:

    “Of all the recent Desecresy works, this album most closely approximates the approach achieved on their first, Arches of Entropy, by forming a wall of sound from distorted lower-frequency power chords and hoarse grumbling vocals from which the core of the song descends, producing a different type of music.”

    At least these reviews have gotten so bad they are now unintentionally hilarious.

    1. How is this a bad review ?

      1. papa bare says:

        The most obvious thing is that it’s loaded with “big” words that serve only to obfuscate, not illuminate, the point. This is understandable because there is not much of a point, just a mushy impression.

        See the quoted paragraph, which can be pared down to, >>it’s like their old stuff because of the guitars and growls, but it’s different too<>it’s doomy with some cool supporting leads<>this may not be very good but at least they’re trying something new without totally ditching that classic style that their fans know and love<>it sounds pretty cool<<. That's the level of depth expected from a Metal Archive user review, not from DMU where transparent analysis is critical to discerning how worthwhile a time investment into a given album may be.

        All this points to the reviewer thinking the album is not very good but not wanting to say so outright. Why tacitly approve of something that you're saying is basically mediocre?

        For full disclosure, I find Desecrecy bad. My low bar for Finndeath is Purtenance and, if you're talking about "atmosphere" and "immersion", Member of Immortal Damnation is much more successful than anything Desecrecy has released, with Arches of Entropy being the peak of a consistent downhill grade. Put any of their albums side by side with Psychostasia, Slumber of Sullen Eyes, or even the flawed but spirited Musta Seremonia, and I doubt you have much of a case in their defense.

        However my opinion on Desecrecy has no bearing on how underhandedly dishonest this review is but I considered it worthwhile to take initiative and make my own bias clear. This reviewing tyle is backward compared to DMU's elitist approach which acknowledges that life is too short for mediocrity, and the incompetence of lacking bands deserves to be exposed.

        1. Belisario says:

          It is rather difficult to joyfully praise the sixth album done by a band when it is not radically different from other stuff done earlier yet manages to bring in a somewhat novel and interesting twist that makes it overall worthy. That is the idea I got from the review, later confirmed upon listening, and I think it was well put into words.

          Concerning the band’s music, it is an atmosphere-infused Bolt Thrower worship which sounds like no other band, in which vision and music are one and with every album being consistent with its predecessors yet clearly unique. I can’t think of many bands which have done so lately. On the other hand, it bears no comparison with Psychostasia, Slumber of Sullen Eyes or Musta Seremonia because it is in no way similar, but its overall career is superior to what Adramelech, Demigod and Rippikoulu have achieved through the years.

    2. Flying Kites says:

      Brett is apt at describing musical architecture in metal. Not something to be found much outside of classical.

      https://www.deathmetal.org/metal/

      1. frying kikes says:

        brett has written lucid and informative reviews. but that has no bearing on the fact that this review is shit. nobody gets to ride their own coat tails.

        1. crying dykes says:

          agreed dumb review and boring album well it had a few good riffs

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