A slowly seeping heat death experienced through manic hysteria, wrathful command and an eventual morbid acceptance in spastic self-scission this sophomore full-length album from Portland, Oregon-based death metal quintet Petrification amplifies their refocused nowadays ‘old school’ inspired presence into a tragedian-yet-clubbed at slow dissolving feat. Protesting fate as often as it decries mortal witness ‘Sever Sacred Light‘ witness the downfall from behind a thick veneer of lysergic glass, a kaleidoscopic vision with uniformly cut parts. Although their classics inspired sound continues to win quick favor per an enthused rhythm n’ growl experience herein and an above-average set of traits overall, they’ve yet escaped true distinction from the crowd, making for an album which is strong in its delivery but still just on the cusp of standing out among the legions abounding.

Petrification formed circa 2014 between folks who’d been involved in a variety of bands beforehand, be it War Master or various crust, crossover and extreme thrash metal groups in Texas and Oregon. Their collective intent was made clear enough within a few years of synching up as their well-received demo tape (‘Summon Horrendous Destruction‘, 2017) did a fine enough job invoking early Scandinavian death metal’s obsession with the first couple of Autopsy records while shaking things up with a Bolt Thrower‘s heavy metal sourced lead melodies and an Incantation-esque doomed dynamism by the time their well-liked debut LP (‘Hollow of the Void‘, 2018) released. The closest comparison for their sound was something like Cenotaph‘s 1992 debut, splitting the difference between Finnish death metal’s shades of U.K. death metal rhythms and the sleepier pieces on ‘Onward to Golgotha‘. It was an inspired debut but not a memorable one beyond its sound due to fairly average songcraft set alongside so many bands playing in a similar style at the time. Anyhow, the major success of that first LP was that it did a fine job of making good on the gloom and the horror proposed by their demo tape.

For their sophomore full-length album we get but buzzing and bounding movement one’d expect in following up ‘Hollow of the Void‘ though this time around the doomed shades they’d deployed prior are eased (“Transmissions of the Unseen” exists, though) back on for the sake of impact, otherwise leaning into a faster paced and a slightly hardcore inflected hop in the vein of recent popular United States death metal. We experience fine enough sum of this phenomenon as opener “Twisted Visions of Creation” walks us back and forth through those realms while noting that they’ve not devolved but rather reached for simpler grooves when called for. Horror-fueled and mushed out production values yet position their sound amongst the old ways and easily parsed vocals help sustain some semblance of early Bolt Thrower (see: “The Hourglass Dissolves”) feeling for an effective enough nowadays version of a ‘old school’ death metal experience. This doesn’t necessarily strike upon the circa 1992 era of bands like Demigod but we do get a some similar melodic intent on “Oneiric Obscurum” and that level of lurching Eldritch diffusion on ‘Seething Cosmological Dread” as standouts on the full listen. This initial observation leaves Petrification in an interesting headspace where their output has riffs, plenty of rich and ruinous movement but presents itself rolling forth without any truly unexpected swerves filtering into view for its duration.

There are only a few places to land, to catch a tangent outside of pace, and feel the horror of the presence created and live within the busied world that ‘Sever Sacred Light‘ illustrates. Much of this crowded sensation comes from several mid-paced pieces in a row all jogging along at a steady, somewhat uniform gallop and presenting a cadence that rarely breaks from the cue of the main rhythm guitars, leaving little air to breathe within the funereal trance of “Temporal Entrapment” and sucking the air from the moment with lyrics which leave little negative space for the horror synth/keyboard edges to begin present themselves nearby. That isn’t to say that Petrification have created a plainly samey experience to the point that it drones on endlessly, though at ~36 minutes per spin I’d found it hard to point to the natural springs of intrigue or identity beyond a general sense of foreboding atmosphere and mosh metallic riffs (“Cadaverous Delirium”, for example). For a band with so much chill worked into each piece they present as one without a moment to waste.

‘Sever Sacred Light‘ offers a meaningful progression beyond Petrification‘s debut album as these folks continue to flesh out their own sense of modern yet classics-minded style. That said, without any truly memorable songs to back their well-honed and atmospherically dense approach to death metal this album ends up feeling simplified and only slightly above average despite an appreciable mélange of song types and early 90’s guitar work being presented. Though I didn’t find myself deeply connected to its wares I don’t doubt for a second that this album will be popular for its easily approached sound and some of the more directly referential parts which add charm and over-handed suggestions of their point(s) of inspiration a long the way. A moderately high recommendation.

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