Review by Fernando on May 7, 2023.

An unholy Finnish and American alliance, Veriluola, is a blackened death metal band that spawned seemingly out of nowhere with a crushing demo back in 2020, and have now unleashed their full length album through Nameless Grave Records.

Since there’s not much on the band I’ll be brief. The mastermind seems to be the Finnish musician known as Santeri, who handles guitars and bass, and the band had a change of vocalists between the release of the demo and the making of this record. The new vocalist and second guitarist is multi-instrumentalist Malus, from the projects Disheaded and Apokatastasis. Now for the actual important part. Veriluola play blackened death metal, and their particular style is very much indebted to the early 90’s, particularly Hellenic black metal and Mortuary Drape. The sound the band crafted for themselves is very melodic but very crushing and relentless. If there can be any comparison, it would be if Archgoat played in the style of the aforementioned Mortuary Drape, without losing any of their trademarked grit.

On a more specific level, the riffs are the main highlight, both Santeri and Malus do an excellent job of playing fast, slow and midpace riffs, complemented by some equally good solo work and a knack for groove to keep each song interesting. Malus’s vocals are also a highlight, they’re appropriately demonic and unrelenting, his deep gurgling growls and screeches add that little extra death metal brutality that’s reminiscent of early black and death metal, but without sounding like some soulless pastiche of much better growls from the past. The bass work, also courtesy of Santeri, is excellent, it’s very deep and contrasts well with the downtuned guitars. And finally the drumming, it’s also good, though the band didn’t credit a drummer in the promos, however, I can at least appreciate that they’re real drums, which is always a plus.

In terms of musical chops and skill the band has all their bases covered, and in practice as a unit they truly shine. And this is odd because at least for the time being, this is still a studio project, so to see them play music that would feel at home on a stage is commendable. Furthermore, while the band do very well playing fast, their true strength is when they slow down. The track ‘Enthralled By The Blaze’ is one of the highlights in that sense, it’s a slow track but it’s also heavy, melancholic and despondent, near the end a sinister organ plays and it feels natural, and more impressively, it doesn’t feel like the band added a doom metalish track just for the hell of it, the song is in line with the rest of the album and works as an excellent midpoint break before returning to pure savagery with the longest track ‘Impish Insurrection’, which is also one of the highlights and display all of the band’s strengths flawlessly. And the album closes in an appropriately sinister note as well with ‘Eternal Knights’, so all in all, a perfectly paced and well executed package that will check all the boxes any fan of extreme metal would want, while also adding something that’s modern and forward thinking while being rooted in the old school.

The final aspect to note is the band’s production, it's actually a very well produced record. The sound is polished but not to the point of sounding plastic, and it’s actually to the band’s advantage because the music presented here wouldn’t sound as striking as it is if it had the usual raw and gritty production of most black metal. So all in all, the band clearly know what they’re doing and know exactly what their music needs, and how they want to sound, and the final product speaks for itself.

Overall, Veriluola succeeded in making a kickass record that’s also out of time, in the sense that their music is unapologetically vintage, yet with a modern shine that also puts it above any other revivalist or copycat out there. Highly recommended to any fan of black, death or just extreme heavy music.

Best tracks: ‘Anguished Soul Collective’, ‘Enthralled By The Blaze’, ‘Impish Insurrection’, ‘Eternal Knights’

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Alex on June 3, 2020.

Further extending his reach into the space of everything an nothing, Lord Sxuperion's (Matthew) next installment arrives roughly one year later following the summit of Endless Spiritual Embodiment. Since Cosmic Void's opening in 2016, it has been full throttle into the realm of confusion, a journey through the extremes of the mind and the galactic ethereal forces that have existed since the idea of conception. His turbulent, electronic, maze-like form of cavernous death metal with a pinch a of melody and rhythm continues to stretch deeper into a void splayed apart by existential horrors mingling with cosmic dread. Omniscient Pulse puts into motion the barque to traverse a place of ongoing conflict, birthing both the wondrous and dangerous.

The generator is immediately activated with 'Owl', ignited in the furthest distance via the crashing brilliance of Matthew's light-swallowing growls and intoxicating opening riffs. Untamed and set to roam the outer reaches of space, his drumming then combusts and in the most flamboyant of ways, the organic module of Sxuperion is reactivated. All this remains in perpetual motion and transition to an entry as colossal as 'Death (Bussard Ramjet Malfunction)'. Matthew's vocals stretch from those of an omnipotent force to those of indecipherable and almost psychologically disturbed verbal clatter. Judging from the title of the song, it would make sense something this sudden transpire as a mechanism used to project the feeling of compromised engineering (that of life).

To aid this next step towards the seemingly unreachable, the simplistic yet artistically genius depiction as the cover manages to perfectly capture the idea of insignificance through its emphasis on scale. We often speak of how well a band or project can represent or give account of the immeasurable cosmos or the abyssal, but only few truly understand how to achieve this effect, not just through the music created but also the imagery surrounding it. You'd envision the image while hearing a song like 'Planet Crusher - Defeating the Holy Emperor' and begin to understand how well executed the less is more approach is on Omniscient Pulse. Sacrificing visual glamour for something humble, all the while loudly vocal about the cosmic immensity which dwarfs and makes meaningless one's existence, comes as a praiseworthy facet of Sxuperion's compositions.

The music on Omniscient Pulse compared to that of past albums is of a slightly more technical, more sophisticated architecture. The drumming specifically undergoes multiple tempo and rhythmic changes throughout the record to align itself with the tonality of the guitars, vocals and ambiance. 'Death (Bussard Ramjet Malfunction)' executes this with awe; a sublime emergence of frequencies would intertwine with the turbulent all the while acrobatic drumming. However, not at the expense of the dictatorial climate expressed through Matthew's vocals as they remain the dominant asset with songs like 'Planet Crusher - Defeating the Holy Emperor', 'Betrothed Catacombs' and 'Myopian Frequency Release' emphasizing its omnipresence. The potential held within the music to expand is capitalized on and exploited in-so taking the record through a series of steadily climaxing moments until its pinnacle is met. This is the bread and butter of a Sxuperion album (the way I see it), being able to mobilize the instrumental mote of a song constantly growing in mass, to then explode in grandeur before the listener/s ears is a thing to anticipate with highest of expectations. A Sxuperion does not fail here.

I do miss the Gregorian chanting heard on Cosmic Void provided they added yet another ominous texture in conjunction with Matthew's hulking vocals; however, the samples taken from select films did appear to compensate for this missing feature due to how much more effective they were implemented, causing them to sound very much integral and as extensions of the songs. The production still maintains an organic approach that again acts in unity with Lord Sxuperion's (Matthew) trigger-less drumming. And as referenced earlier, there is much more to his vocal delivery with the addition of almost clinical, impulsive, vocal outbursts, a frenzied display of yells as though trying to free oneself from torment or frustratingly attempting to rectify something irreparable. Altogether, Omniscient Pulse is another strong addition to Sxuperion's interstellar catalog of primordial mysteries and horrors. It will be interesting to hear where the project goes from here.

Evocative Desolation Transmission
• 'Owl'
• 'Death (Bussard Ramjet Malfunction)'
• 'Planet Crusher - Defeating the Holy Emperor'

Transcendence through Corpuscle Sabotage
• 'Bethrothed Catacombs'
• 'Myopian Frequency Release'

Rating: 9.3 out of 10