In honor of Narcotic Wasteland guitarist Dallas Toler Wade's birthday, coinciding with the 10-year anniversary of their self-titled debut album, the band is summoning fans to a series of skull-shattering parties throughout their tour.
Progressive Post Black/Death Metal band Dawn of Ouroboros has brought us a diverse and driving album with their second album Velvet Incandescence. Out of California, this band is putting together traits from their peers in the post black metal scene like Deafheaven and Alcest but adding their own twists on the instrumentation and tone of the genre. Also, the amazing vocal talents of Chelsea Nurphy, with her mix of harsh growls and then hauntingly beautiful clean vocals that are throughout the album.
Leading off the record is “Healing Grounds”, a track with an opening similar to a track you would hear on an indie rock/alternative radio station. Then all of a sudden BAM! Chelsea’s harsh vocals kick in and we are off to the races with crushing guitars from Tony Thomas and Ian Baker that shine on the track as well as the entire album. Ron Bertrand’s drums, mixed with Chelsea’s mixture of harsh growls leading into an ethereal, calming clean vocal interlude section, before bringing the fury back until the end of the track. Once it ends, you are left with a “What did I just hear?” feeling.
“Testudines” is my standout track of the album. The band juggles so many different genres throughout the entire track. Opening with a sound that if tuned higher could almost have a pop punk/emo sound, then suddenly blended in with double bass kicking throughout the track and then diving into second wave black metal that could come off of any of that era’s albums. Then fusing into a progressive/djent section that could fit on any Periphery or Tesseract record. Even including a hardcore call-out-esque section near the end of the track which makes you wonder how many more styles are going to come next. The band’s unique musical mixture shows here and their ability to genre juggle and pull it off successfully and fit it under five minutes which is an impressive feat, making it my favorite track on the album.
The band’s varied choices of genres and instrumentation works beautifully. Mixing elements of almost pure melodic death metal on “Castigation”, to second wave black metal on “Rise From Disillusion” and the synth/shoegaze elements of the album’s closer “Velvet Moon” which is a perfect end to this progressive post-black metal album, or whatever genre defines this album. At this point, I just love the journey and don’t care what way we got there.
Dawn of Ouroboros is showcasing themselves in a unique blend of progressive metal, black metal, shoegaze, death metal and even elements of indie rock with clean vocals easing the listener before being brought down from the heavens to the grittiness and dark theme of this album. I love this record a lot and love when bands “challenge the norm” and seeing how they can push the genre or blend so many genres in their music that it’s hard to put the band in a particular genre box. Dawn of Ouroboros has a bright future in metal and whatever genre they choose to put themselves in and definitely a go-to listen.
Track Listing
1) Healing Grounds (5:29)
2) Testudines (4:44)
3) Iron Whispers (6:19)
4) Levitating Pacifies (8:04)
5) Rise From Disillusion (7:30)
6) Castigation (3:28)
7) Cephalopodic Void (3:59)
8) Velvet Moon (6:44)
SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Released: 04/21/23
Label: Prosthetic Records
FFO: Deafheaven, Ihsahn, Between The Buried and Me
