Album Review: Liminal Shroud – All Virtues Ablaze (Willowtip Records)

Canadian black metal trio Liminal Shroud will release their sophomore album ‘All Virtues Ablaze’ on August 5th, 2022 via Willowtip Records. The album will be available on digipak, Vinyl LP, and digital formats.

Liminal Shroud prepared the following statement concerning the album:

Our second album, All Virtues Ablaze, takes the vision set forth on our debut and executes with greater intensity, song craft and performance. Written and recorded between 2019 and 2021, this album represents and captures a process of rejection, annihilation and regeneration of the self and contemplates the cyclical forces of futility that shape our condition.

Musically, All Virtues Ablaze is a major development on our previous album, taking the emotive atmospherics, searing melodicism and bitter fury found on Through the False Narrows to new heights. We are very proud of the compositional strength and impact of these four songs.

Lyrically, we delve deeper into the themes of hopelessness and despair, resolve and transformation present on our previous release, sharpened in the perception of emptiness yet with an eye to the vast reaches and sources of solace to be found above, below and around us. Again, the unyielding tides and otherworldly expanses of the coast provide much inspiration.

This release is our next statement and beginning.

There may only be four songs on this album but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s not an exhaustive trawl through the murky depths of harsh and horrible black metal. Liminal Shroud have crafted four epics, four gargantuan beasts that burn with blackened fire, but also feature an incredible amount of atmosphere.

Each tome showcases an unbelievable amount of ferociousness, the core of black metal cracked open and on full display here. Though the focus on the frantic and frenzied noise shouldn’t put off more conservative listeners as Liminal Shroud have so much more to them. Across the four tracks and around thirty-nine minutes, they show just why All Virtues Ablaze resonates on a different level.

Part of that comes from the layered atmosphere but another is the intriguing use of melody. Combined with the intense black metal, the music ends up having a hypnotic feel. This is a bottomless pit of darkness. Where fear turns to madness and madness turns to peaceful acceptance. There is no end, only every-lasting darkness.

The devil is in the detail here and Liminal Shroud have a lot of devilry about them. All Virtues Ablaze is an undeniable example of blistering black metal but it’s also so layered that it feels so much more imaginative. It’s not just a fantastic showcase of this band’s talents, it’s a fantastic showcase of where the best of black metal sits in 2022.

Liminal Shroud – All Virtues Ablaze Full Track Listing:

1. Hypoxic
2. Mists Along Florencia
3. Transmigration I: Pelagic Voids
4. Transmigration II: The Cleansing Ash

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Willowtip Records