Album Review: Plasmodium – Towers of Silence (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Australia’s extreme metal band, Plasmodium will release their sophomore album on April 30th 2021 via Transcending Obscurity Records. Called Towers of Silence, the blackened death metal unit have embraced atmospheric elements for something with a sense of looming dread and impending cacophony.

Very raw, very intense and very cold, Plasmodium aren’t your average blackened death metal band. Although that might not seem to be the case with the first two tracks, ParaMantra and Churning. The horrid blast of heaviness in the former dissipating into eerie and uncomfortable noise. Whereas the latter is utter carnage rooted in the bleakest of black metal styles.

Both tracks combined just pass the 7-minute mark, worth mentioning because the rest of the album is a bit different. Starting with the near 9-minute Pseudocidal, where dungeon-esqe atmosphere builds hauntingly with the crashing of instrumentation adding more intensity as it goes on. As it reaches the halfway point it has transformed into something much more horror based and the blackened death side of the band is beginning to re-emerge. This is what makes Plasmodium a unique listen.

Although that seems almost subtle when compared to what follows. The 18+ minutes of Translucinophobia. Now this is weird. Now this is dangerous. Exploding with a frenzy of death metal chaos and sustaining that noise for over 5 minutes. The screeches, howls and horror begins to taper off leading to a confusing medley of effects that lasts barely anytime before the chaos is brought back with force. Unrelenting for almost all the remainder of its runtime, to say it turns into mush is an understatement. Hard to listen too, hard to really enjoy even if there is a flavour to what Plasmodium are doing here.

The last track, Vertexginous is also an epic length track at nearly 13-minutes. Here it’s the twisted horror-based atmosphere that leads the way. The sound of torturous pain and suffering transforming into bleak and throbbing heaviness. The bubbling effect on the vocals, the consuming guitars and methodical drum beat, this is one of the most unusual sounding tracks of the bunch.

With Plasmodium, expecting the unexpected is the only way to listen to this album. It is pretty damn unique but is undoubtedly a difficult listen.

Plasmodium – Towers of Silence Full Track Listing:

1. ParaMantra
2. Churning
3. Pseudocidal
4. Translucinophobia
5. Vertexginous

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Transcending Obscurity Records