Wracked with a near-fatal cocktail of numerous venoms, haunted by aural hallucinations of funereal choirs, and reserved to numbly stew within their fantasies of humanity’s grand demise Alexandria, Virginia-based black metal duo THANATOTHERION make their first impression calling for the end of times to accelerate so that the planet might sooner reclaim its dignity beyond the inevitable extinction of mankind. ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ is a call for doom, a press upon the self-destruct button and a feat of diabolical thrashing black metal mayhem which challenges and accosts the viable futurity of the human condition riff after riff. Dedicated to punching downward upon the ‘ready doomed, their otherworldly strike at esoteric black metal is yet coherent and commanding as a three act work writ for readable yet exaggerative impact which embodies the nihil of its thought as a complete nuclear event, thrilled by the muse of an end complete.

Thanatotherion is a more recent invention from musician Ominous Droning aka Shelby Lermo who is best known for his work in blackened cosmic horror death-crew Ulthar, several brain-crippling albums as guitarist for Vastum, and a more recent maniac deathgrind duo Human Corpse Abuse. In this case the maestro’s focus was initially set upon a solo black metal project under the name Naughtskeid (ca. 2020), an idea that’d sprouted into a demo tape (‘Ultimate Infernal Nightscape‘, 2020) by the end of that same year. Though none of those songs were re-used in to process of making ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ there’d been a serious amount of foreshadowing in that tape in terms of generating a darker-thrashing, kinda USBM tipped atmosphere which is of course uniquely stated per the broad-minded guitar techniques of the main composer. Though the subject of black metal was addressed and inspiration drummed up on that tape what carries over is the esoteric, unpredictable realm depicted. Under this name Lermo is joined by drummer/engineer Jason Bursese of the yet underrated Black Fucking Cancer as the two act in semi-continuation of the previous project where we’ll find entirely clear echoes of the past in ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ yet the work itself is freshly idiosyncratic and diabolic in its statement, myriad in its malevolence yet rarely typical in the jagged strikes it takes.

Inspirational in the sense that it’d been writ in infirmity and recorded in remission ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ was crafted during a trying span of time in mid-to-late 2022 after Lermo had been diagnosed and treated for throat cancer. A venomous creation in a time of life-saving poisons (as in, chemotherapy and radiation) lingering, this work seems to have been the focus and the fire of the individual during that process. Thee threat of death brings a rasping bitterness, an outsized hatred of the human species which is threaded through the lyrics under no particular veil as Thanatotherion react to the reaper with a beckoning hand and an echoic cone of amplification, encouraging mass death and extinction, suggesting the planet would restore itself one rid of the plague rat race humanity has become. Recorded over the course of recovery (2023, assumedly) and produced, engineered and mixed by the main duo (plus mastering from the brilliant Adam Tucker / Signaturetone) there is a scathing vibrancy to the delivery of this debut album which can barely be contained by the flying cathedral full of ghosts its sound design generates.

The thrashing, frantic diabolism of “Red Cathedral” with its ghost-choirs and snarling lead vocal reads as death metal in arrangement to start, a strangely knotted yet quickly memorable feat which carries a dramatic sense of malevolence in its introduction. After taking in the spectacle of this piece and its tonal pair (“The Raven and the Box of Stars”) the central verse riff which first appears ~40 seconds in caught my attention as an almost 90’s industrial metal groove in spirit, arena-sized as it begins to develop, eventually finding its full statement somewhat more elaborate in response. This suggests up front that Thanatotherion‘s level of creation here is considered beyond simply plastering riffs in relative arrange; What’d promised to be an unpredictable blaze through quickly reveals an advanced sensibility for rhythmic statement and punctuation which is technical in its achievement but rarely (if at all) reaches for the realms of dissonance (there is a phrase or two on “Nuclear Womb“) or disarray for effect. The attack of these opening pieces is black-thrashing and maniac as a classic Absu release but carries the strange gait of something like ‘Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise‘ (sans any progressive metal intent) at the same time, glowing in its own unreal atmosphere but not expressly limited to black metal directives.

Directed down the throat of a cavernous, hall-sized space ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ passes through its first chapter (as in, the first three songs) relentless in the midst of its ranting movement but not without patient nuance developed as the solos, distantly set keyboard interjections, and urgently struck guitar layers fire up as extensions of the bone-fingered riffs Thanatotherion develop to a certain satisfying density. While we’ve heard similarly hard swings from Lermo‘s guitar work in other bands these opening moments have already distinguished the project while retaining a punched-at feeling, an immediacy helped by Bursese‘s backing. Thrilling as those opening moments are, “Orb” insists that the mind take a break, the gut takes a breath and the landscape shifts deeper down their cathedralesque tunnel with “Wilczyca”. This’d been the first piece where the buzzing noise modulation found amidst the blind corners of their sound design caught my ear, humming in the periphery as if to motion away from the blasting, nigh bestial whip that surrounds the simple black metal groove which begins developing around ~1:32 minutes into the song and reaches its kinda doomed conclusion around ~2:36 seconds. I could probably try to play-by-play the whole record but the gist of it is that these songs are heavily constructed in emphasis of action, there is some cerebro-level connection between the duo in terms of structure, and none of it is stripped back or spartan in terms of presentation. The vibe is surreal and dramatic but specific, not scuffed or herky-jerky for the sake of it.

The third and final chapter is a ~twelve minute piece (“Codex Crepusculum”) which more-or-less reprises the swinging movement, violent interjections and ornate aggression of the two songs that’d opened ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ and in the process the character and signature movement of Thanatotherion materializes that much more clearly. At the same time it forces the brain to choose between a few different songs as to which bring the elemental voice of the album and which are standouts, stuff worth remembering and from my point of view the jettison pace of “The Ravena and the Box of Stars” is probably the most potent in hindsight yet the conclusive reach of the final song is sprawling, suggesting there is more that could be done to expand this sound in scale and intensity.

The sounds of the boreal rainforest at night are the last thing we hear as the death knell of humanity rings final and the intent of this album’s themes are well communicated in terms of its various interludes and interstitial dressings, though the lyrics are far more cryptic in their intent and symbolism, brilliantly verbose and often spiked with repetition to help hammer a point through or to generate an estranged mantra typically centered around death and regrowth. I appreciate the rare case where I not only get a full and well-curated lyric sheet to follow along with but that the lyrics are a tonally precise scrawl in line with the weirding yet violent mania of ‘Alienation Manifesto‘ itself, this piece of the puzzle is so often missing from my own experience and it pays in triplicate in terms of illuminating the voice of the artist beyond a snarl and a riff. Pair this curation of meaning and bizarrely intricate verbage with a wild, dead-sunlit monstrosity per the cover artwork via Daniel Vega and the whole of Thanatotherion‘s vision is remarkably complete, surprisingly approachable and well-realized as a debut full-length album. A very high recommendation.

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