Darkness spreads like the plague as one of Australia’s most formidable entities returns with their newest affliction, and a title relating the work to weaponry proves appropriate for the attack executed within its rites. PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS have skillfully infected various planes with havoc and dread over the years, and Devil’s Hammer takes those elements to the next strain of mutation, with a seismic impact from its wrath that thoroughly devastates our existence.
Ravaging forces are wielded on every level, including a tremolo frenzy unleashed during the initial onslaught, and a sound that is raw but also clear pinpoints the deathly cold emanating from oppressive riff layers. Their glaring blackness draws one further into an abyss, where progressions are designed to spawn entrancing and dissonant forms, and “Tears of the Scythe” concentrates this amid tremolo melodies coming through with a distinct astral quality. An atmosphere heightened using effects of that sort extends to some ambient passages, which cross alluring realms of the ethereal and beyond with acoustics or a psychosis reflected in other warped tones. While one interlude track is devoted fully to this style, they appear mainly to complement the orchestrations without taking from their extremity.
Rhythms exert a forceful influence on the dark myriad coagulated in each piece, with pummeling blast beat doses calculated effectively alongside more trudging paces, and together these bring a storm of destruction and despair that often becomes complicated by intricate drum maneuvers. This dynamism extends to some other distinct beats on tracks like “Jackal,” and its aura develops toward otherworldly levels of precision and splendor through soloing, a feature rising occasionally to exhibit another measure of prowess among the ruins. Shades of gloom are also evoked through certain melodic patterns, and those impressions are amplified by a cooperative interplay between the different elements. A definitive instance of this song crafting is marked on “Shards of Dusk,” where the drumming accommodates a slow-noted tragedy echoed further in Balam’s vocal grimness, and its vehemence parallels the madness of this deathly collective until succumbing to a severed end.
Haunting musical evocations are made complete on the lyrical plane, where no hope remains in the scenes of decimation surveyed throughout, and they transpire from the title track’s infernal weapon along with various natural elements and disasters. Enslavement heightens misery among the storms, and it seems to be the Christian god reigning tyrannically there, until earthquakes cause a shift on “Bitter Cross” that leaves the “King of kings” displaced. Entities like Death are also personified, which is fitting as malign spirits gather during later passages of savagery and occult sacrifices, and “Goddess of Winter” intriguingly joins another spectral manifestation with the overarching atmospheric hostility. Death and rebirth appear within its seasonal transitions, and different philosophies follow in the abyss of “Armour Satanized,” with a possible Nietzschean significance noted in “I will gaze into the pit. It will stare back at me.” Demise and ruin ultimately come with the night, and that solitary experience matches the bleak surroundings for a journey possessed with dynamic substance and mystery.
The energies harnessed on Devil’s Hammer achieve a new and greater degree of vitality, which is readily perceived in conjurations that join malevolence with other dark alluring currents, and they fiercely advance the unconquerable spirits cast forth on past efforts. PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS traverses these atmospheric depths while also raising their signature blackness, and this ravaging venture will undoubtedly remain compelling as we drift into the unknown.
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