With the final years of humanity set upon us via the ugly trifles of a universally maligned existence what drives Netherlands/Italy-based funeral death/doom metal duo VEILED METAMORPHOSIS to madness is not the follies of a desperate species but a unique connection with the cacophony of the ancient ones awakened, as evidenced by this debut full-length album. That is to suggest that the wall of bellowing dread and aimlessly struck meter of ‘Tentacled Void of Infinity‘ is intended as slow saunter into cosmic dust with all manner of animalistic resistance preserved. Harrowing and harsh as this first impression is it is the hollowly droning endpoint achieved which ultimately shapes their journey for better or worse depending on your taste.

Veiled Metamorphosis assumedly formed in recent years as an online connection between unknown Italian vocalist Grave Desecrator and songwriter/performer Vitriol (Nihill, Ulveblod) formed in collaboration per the latter’s vision for a funeral doom metal record inspired by black metal movements and harsh noise atmosphere. The press materials suggest that they’ve blended funeral doom with “the satanic intensity of first wave black metal” and this is shockingly off-mark per the actual result. Based on my time with this record we can quickly dismiss the conversation surrounding black metal, even despite a Wikipedia page which insists the traditions of Nortt and Abyssmal Sorrow are upheld, as this is a funeral death/doom metal record featuring a harsh and confrontational wall of noise as its prime effect. Between guttural vocals, the scathing wall of distortion shocked across their realm, and the slow motion hammering of atmosludge/doom-shaped riffs applied it should be immediately clear what this album is and who it’d appeal to.

With no accoutrement, no melodicism applied and very little in the way of restful headspace ‘Tentacled Void of Infinity‘ is a death march, a bellowing slow-dragging pulse of volatile furor which might hold some water with fans of extreme atmospheric sludge thanks to a nuclear-lit guitar tone and the plodding, sometimes slightly irregular pulse of the drums. Despite their band name Veiled Metamorphosis is a persistent force with a singular directive which is unflinching for its first ~21 minutes as the first two pieces (“Demonic Suffocation” b/w “Tentacled Void of Infinity”) plow and pillage their way through this first of three acts with callous and growling quake. From my point of view this was a brilliant step back to the era of funeral doom metal in the first decade of the 2000’s where some mainstream appeal had brought more actors into the realm who’d began to experiment with maximal tones, dramatic aggression and loudness rather than the minimalist derangements or esoteric extremes in harsh juxtaposition that’d defined the early days of the niche.

The actual meat and prime positioning of this album comes within what I’d call its middle third as the more gracefully tilted “The Seven Gates ov Kur” give us a thread of melody and sullen guitar work to weave along as their tank goes on rolling forth. A few searching harmonized leads and lightly coherent structure go a long way toward Veiled Metamorphosis finally wielding their power and bludgeoning with its extremity on this piece and for this reason I’d found it particularly important for finding that angle into immersion beyond wrath and wrack. The drums, however they were implemented, finally wake up on the recording for the exceptional “Unspeakable Abominations” where we get both their most guttural and finessed performances clashing together in an almost industrially warming piece as it burns on past the second half. Those two pieces basically “make” the album experience for my own taste beyond the long and brutally cracked heave of the opening third.

The pain, the punishing meter, and the overall worship of crackling ear-piercing distortion is the best aspect of the full listening experience at nearly an hourlong result yet there is a serious caveat to the primal, wrathful vision of this album and its confrontational effect. There is a third act here which is likely sourced from the experimental sessions that’d resulted in Vitriol‘s ‘Occult Meditations‘ back in 2023, and one that fully changes the shape of the experience in a seemingly unrelated way. This 18+ minute piece consists of brutally repetitious synth modulation, aiming for slowly churning minimalist dark ambiance. In some sense this basically resembles their use of guitar shapes/movements in the other pieces as it matches the overall pace but there is simply nothing to the experience it offers versus the oppressive length of that moment. Don’t mind me if you’re huge on drone and the subtlety of this type of piece, of course, but it’d fully interrupted the main reason I’d showed up: The brutally sledged burn of the rest of the album.

My thoughts on ‘Tentacled Void of Infinity‘ are almost uncomfortably plain: The brutal, crackling version of funeral doom extremes Veiled Metamorphosis have on offer is simply put, a cool-as-fuck sound shaped into four compellingly over the top songs. The bland, overlong ambient/drone piece which follows doesn’t make all that much sense to me but it must factor into the overall take. The effect is both somewhat experimental in nature, reminding me of better days spent chasing underground funeral doom, but also plain in its statement as something tentative yet easily expanded upon in the future. Is this sound and vision worth iterating upon? Yes, and these ideas (wall of noise funeral doom + hypnotic dark ambiance) would work quite well if they were melded together or divorced altogether rather than presented as two separate forces in forced company. A moderate recommendation.

https://dyingsunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tentacled-void-of-infinity

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