Album Review: The Dark Alamorté – Lunacrium Thepsis (Unique Leader)

Blackened-death metallers The Dark Alamorté will release their new album ‘Lunacrium Thepsis’ on the 20th of May 2022 via Unique Leader Records. Lunacrium Thepsis tells the story of someone committing suicide and the build up to that point.

A monumental release. Not just in length (it is very long) but in scope and imagination. The Dark Alamorté are story-tellers and through the medium of ambient death metal, they craft something that stays with you long after the final notes have rung out. An album of melancholy and brutality, an album of icy bleakness and an album of unmitigated heaviness.

Instrumentally, The Dark Alamorté doesn’t mess around. We’re talking fast-paced blasts of blackened death built on a foundation of blistering drum work. Put it this way, if you’re concerned about the word ‘ambience’ cropping up in your metal, be assured that The Dark Alamorté are a savage bunch. They just happen to have layers that create gloomy atmosphere.

This is a rabbit hole, one that has the listener free-falling into unknown depths filled with suffocating darkness. Where wild and terrifying images assault the mind as the fear takes hold. It’s a feeling that certainly makes the basis of the album all the more real sounding even if it’s not something you necessarily will have ever experienced.

It’s a deep hole, one that features fifteen stops and some of those are lengthy experiences. The likes of A Loathing Tomb passing the eight-minute mark but delivering a slow-building sense of dread that eventually erupts into devilishly heavy delight. Tempest Barren Furor, a track that is near seven minutes in length and features epic levels of ambience and the blackest of heavy metal.

Then there is the finale, the title track. A track that passes the ten-minute mark and doesn’t hang around. Unleashing crunching savagery from the start, delving into thrashier areas and layering some of the most uncomfortable effects heard throughout. It’s the culmination of something pretty damn incredible.

Though, it’s not all about length, of course. Shorter efforts like Gowns of Undying Light, Glasshaven, Infernal Judgement and Tusk in the Abyss offer up sharper jabs of ruthlessness. More bitesize but not lacking in impact or detail. Such a thing seems to be impossible for The Dark Alamorté as their imagination brims over here.

Blackened misery and undeniable intensity, The Dark Alamorté’s Lunacrium Thepsis is an incredible effort. An album that is exhausting but exciting. An album that won’t leave you feeling good but you’ll love anyway.

The Dark Alamorté – Lunacrium Thepsis Full Track Listing:

1. The Inner Quiet
2. Cast into Froth
3. Gowns of Undying Light
4. Vongrimson Burrows
5. A Loathing Tomb
6. Glasshaven
7. Tempest Barren Furor
8. Inmergo Dominium
9. Antediluvian Revelation
10. Infernal Judgement
11. Ungiving Sorrow
12. Tusk in The Abyss
13. Fearfeeder
14. Scourge of Fire
15. Lunacrium Thepsis

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