Album Review: Lichway – Soul Torment (MSH Music Group)

UK black metal band, Lichway (meaning ‘Passage of the Dead’) will release their debut album, Soul Torment on December 15th 2020 via MSH Music Group.

A horrifying intro, Damned Echoes is two minutes of quietly building terror. One that ends in the screams of the tortured and the damned. Leading directly into the real horror, the raw black metal terror that drips from the jaws of Lichway.

An old-school slab of fire and brimstone. For better or worse, the desire of this band to exude the classic roughness of the olden days of black metal is certainly realised. The pits of hell are burning as brightly through Lichway on Bring Finality, Soul Torment and What Comes to All as as it was when the likes of Darkthrone, Bathory and Mayhem first strapped on a bullet belt.

As the album goes on, into the evil and ritualistic Bound By Dusk, the unfettered ferocity of Fading and elongated abuse of Tomb Mist, the mind does adjust to the rawness. Instead of fighting against Lichway, it becomes more of a welcome invitation.

Come Lichway, infect the mental pathways with your demonic fury.

By the time Pointless Existence and Mourners arrive, the shadows are long and the gloom is all too dominating. The latter in particular sees the black metallers delving even deeper for something that sounds so deliciously and delicately evil, you might be convinced Satan started a band and this is what it sounds like.

Lichway – Soul Torment Full Track Listing:

1. Damned Echoes
2. Bring Finality
3. Soul Torment
4. What Comes to All
5. Bound By Dusk
6. Fading
7. Tomb Mist
8. Pointless Existence
9. Mourners

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | MSH Music Group