The Polish band Desolate Empyrean debuts with the convincing full length Selfdestructive, a good example of death doom with no particular frills or variations on the theme, but with effective linearity. This is a project formed by musicians with good experience in their country’s extreme scene, to which it should be added that the first tangible fruit has arrived a good four years after the start of activity, which means that the moves have been properly thought out. The band’s sound reveals itself in the first tracks to be rather direct and grim, well led by the powerful growl of guitarist Adrian Szota; the album thus unfolds in a fluid manner, only to find a certain slowing down of rhythms in the final part, particularly in the last song When the Death Is Calling Me to You. The length of the album may seem excessive, being close to an hour, but all in all none of the ten tracks proposed would deserve to be set aside, as they are all endowed with rather interesting and involving passages; although it is not an album capable of upsetting the hierarchies of the genre, it is always appreciable to listen to a death doom composed and played with competence and conviction as that offered by Desolate Empyrean.

2022 – The End of Time Records