Album Review: Dirge – Lost Empyrean (Debemur Morti Productions)

After 4 long years in seemingly quiet solitude, Dirge, the conjurers of celestial bodies rooted in cumbersome earth, return with their 7th offering of hymnals to the toil of suffering and perseverance.

The new album ‘Lost Empyrean’ is released on the 14th December 2018 via Debemur Morti Productions. You can read our review of their previous release Alma | Baltica here.

Nearly an hour long, there is no shortage of wonder layered through seven tracks of sludgy, doomy and post-metal harmonies. Lost Empyrean is an album filled with blends. Be it the dissolution-driven rhythm, the subtle but effective ambience or the desperation that’s drips through the instruments. It all gets thrown into a pot, the heat is turned up and out comes the likes of Wingless Multitudes, Hosea 8:7 and Algid Troy. An elaborate yet concise trio of tracks that satisfies the deep craving for metal that means something.

The Burden of Almost turns the heat up to even hotter heights with a mind-numbing level of doom riffs and filthy sludge covered hooks. Dirge truly excel at going from sorrowful melody and haunting effects to some of the heaviest metal heard this year. The highlight and the track that everyone needs to hear is the title track. Utterly spell-binding post-metal rage that is as beautiful as it is crushing.

This is not an album you want to end. It’s length is irrelevant as it captures the imagination and holds on tightly. The end result is one of the most satisfying listens of the year wrapped up with an eerie closer in Sarracenia.

Dirge – Lost Empyrean Full Track Listing:

1. Wingless Multitudes
2. Hosea 8:7
3. Algid Troy
4. The Burden Of Almost
5. Lost Empyrean
6. A Sea of Light
7. Sarracenia

The album can be ordered via Debemur Morti Productions here and Dirge’s Bandcamp. Find out more via their website and Facebook Page.