A greying sea of mold, mud and the eagerly re-animated limbs of sadistic corpses churn beneath as the will of the necromanced swill begins to bludgeon our protagonist downward, punishing the life from their lungs with soul-caving torpor upon chest. Left to drip, dry and crust of the insidious rot they’d created Seattle, Washington death metal trio Cystic have now seemingly put in the years, busying frantic yet learned hands that’ve scrambled and scoured through the murkiness of self-defined purpose in wield of morass as if sorcery. The realm of the dead from which they’ve channeled their own ‘Palace of Shadows‘ eyeballs an imposing, terrifyingly stated locus of proper gloom-stricken death metal, a debut which grapples with horrified Eldritch scenery flashing in mind and goriest classicist riffcraft in hand. It is the sort of menacing, rotten haunt one could appreciate from a busted couch in a burnt-down garage or a modest stage in some faraway European haven for the deranged and walk away equally mortified.

Possessed to skate in the reeking floodplains south of Seattle circa 2011 or so… the folks who’d eventually square-up as Cystic began as Inebriator, a thrashing hardcore punk influenced 80’s death metal kind of deal. I dunno if they played a Slutvomit show and ran with the imagery or were looking for their own late 80’s evil metalpunk feeling version of early death metal but their 2016 tape ‘Euthanize Me‘ was actually great and you could see how some of those ideas were compressed through a death-grinding Autopsy-shaped skull when the band name was changed and their ‘The Last Days‘ (2018) demo tape came ripping. All of that was cool but not nearly as big-dog as a lot of their peers in Washington, so, they’d continue to step outside of that punkish and raw 80’s death metal skin with each release from that point; Cystic‘s first official mLP (‘Sworn Enemy of Life‘, 2020) kept the kicking hardcore punk energy behind their stretch but definitely took everything in a more aggressive direction, brutal and grinding but in a more charged way. I don’t know if their second drummer had slotted in by then but something had clearly gone off in the interim and their short but expertly crafted follow-up a few months later (‘Incineration Rites‘, 2020) suggested they were on a roll, making progress beyond general aptitude.

With an unpredictable set of gestational leaks and smaller events in their wake there’d been no telling what ‘Palace of Shadows‘ might end up being beyond death metal, the verdict remains somewhat amorphous while still fitting into the general pacific northwest organic meat grinder mindset. Pensive in its moderately strewn vocal directive, wrathful when the speed of their action drills up and doomed elsewhere most of Cystic‘s debut arrives without a too-clear reference anchoring its style beyond appreciably fine garage-level boot stomping per its ‘old school’ death metal drainage and somewhat uniquely stated voice, somewhere between a rasp, a grunt and a roar depending on the song. Rhythm guitars present a two-man job of accentuation rather than interruption, generally dipping into death/doom for coloration and deviation from punkish, grinding death metal basics but all of it comes with either a lurking, venomous trait or hazed-over zombified stare.

Misery’s ominous veil, plastered to a skull awash with salt. — Opener “Pestilential Throne” gives us the general skid of their mark with a live feeling drum recording the Goat Throne and Headsplit crowds will thumbs up quick, a spongey yet set afire guitar tone with just enough overdrive to manifest depth within fairly straightforward cacophonic riffcraft. The bass guitar notably growls up within this song giving the bloody wobble one might expect from a ‘Severed Survival‘ inspired session but clarified, resonant and particularly active beyond the usual background layer; While the opening piece makes for a thrilling start it isn’t corrugated steel sound design that stacks up first but rather the many sharp angled turns Cystic take to keep the ear guessing as they echolocate the way through the greater cave presented. It segues neatly into what I’d consider the main standout piece on the album to start, “Palace of Shadows and Blood”. An atmospheric death metal piece with a distinct tinge of doom in its wilting downward-facing progressions. Dreary, psychedelic in its festering cough and surprisingly fixative for such an early album track it definitely feels like an intentionally set moment of boldness meant to define the headspace and the overall tonal reach of the record up front. So, the cover artwork from C.S. of Mortiferum (and any Copenhagen-area equivalents for that matter) makes even more sense here in terms of numbed-over and rotten sounds finding their way into the grey and moldering sentience of this group.

That said there is still a considerable mean streak left to discover here as Cystic gesture the way forth with “Duly Drowned” per the vocalist’s imitable rasp, which becomes nigh half intelligible in its straining push as the song unfurls, straying from the contained feeling of, say, the nearby grotesqueries of Anthropophagous unto a blackened level of venomous edge. It isn’t as dark as something like Lethal Prayer but definitely had me musing over the blasphemic side of pre-’93 USDM per its diction, or, thinking outside of the usual suspects in terms of reference and inspiration. From there the mid-point of the album leans into its bulk impression, clattering and thresher-whipped death metal grooves which emphasize swagger well enough while still pulling off riffs. “XIII (A Reprise in Blood)” acts as a quick but incomplete ear-catcher before the second bigger peak on the record, “Core of the Maelstrom” brings one of the lowest, most miserable grooves on the album and this is the proper peak of the action before the final duo finishes the thought. This song in particular compounds my interest, finds its wandering bassline and punchier drumming despite the meandering waft of the song to the point that all resounds as a still fleshing-out realm of possibilities for the band’s left hand touch.

Overall I was beyond surprised by the style and substance available to this debut from Cystic as all signs had pointed to something sort of grinding mad, hot to cut right to the riff, whereas most of this record focuses on trembling cold atmosphere and watery, graven death metal pallor. ‘Palace of Shadows‘ is just off-kilter enough to feel authentic, just exploratory enough to retain a slightly sophisticated early 90’s feeling, and yet somehow manages a brutality that is adventurous within the prescribed miserable realm of decay they’ve depicted. Having gone in expecting some manner of classicist thrashing death and instead gotten a band with a twisted, unkempt point of view which keeps them from walking in a straight line did ultimately impress enough to keep these events standing out in mind and enjoy able on repeat. A high recommendation.

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