Album Review: Dystopia A.D. – Doomsday Psalm (Self Released)

Progressive death metal act Dystopia A.D. return with their brutal new album ‘Doomsday Psalm’. Out on December 2nd, 2022, Dystopia A.D. deliver fantastical storytelling alongside cautionary allegories of uniting for the sake of survival, the climate crisis, and regret of having only laboured and not truly lived.

You’ve not lived until you’ve experienced the multi-faceted and multi-textured sound that is Dystopia A.D.’s progressive death metal. A band capable of tenderising flesh and crushing bones, while also being capable of enriching the soul with their progressive layers and melodic tone shifts. It’s heavy and brutal poignancy… if such a description can make sense.

It’s been over two years since the release of their last record and Dystopia A.D. continue to make great strides forward. Building on their dark and heavy instrumentation with even more progressive soundscapes. All while drip-feeding in dark, but melodic atmosphere. Setting the bar impossibly high with the opening blast of intensity that is Imperial Dawn.

With this opener, Dystopia A.D. don’t just show how intense and dramatic they can be, they show just how high their creativity has been pushed. This might very well be the greatest song the group have written to date.

Does that mean Terminal Lucidity and Fields of Carrion pale in comparison? Of course not! Dystopia A.D. have far too much talent and way too many tricks up their sleeves to not keep you engaged. Delivering dark and moody melodies, distorted guitar growls, gravelly and guttural vocals, and pounding percussion. It’s brilliant stuff.

Then along comes Force-Fed Soma, with its unconventional but ear-pleasing technicality, the highlight being an incredible (and unexpected) brass outro. Followed by a gloomy slice of atmosphere in the form of the ‘interlude’ Lost Shores. Before it’s back to startling progressive intensity and wide-ranging melodic strains with the title track and As Skies Collapse. Yes, that is a touch of folk in the latter.

This banger of an album, par for the course with Dystopia A.D., coming to a close with the thrilling Howl of the Barghest. How exhilarating is it as a finale? You might find your heart is pounding so hard, it hurts. Such is the impressive melodic death metal energy that the track showcases.

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