Amplified between a hundred points of refraction in sinistral angle the phenomenon of being is mused into void-gazing existential abstraction in the hands of Querétaro, Mexico-based technical blackened death metal quartet DARKSIDE RITUAL who peel back the celestial shroud and pry loose the viscera of the skull within this third full-length album. A conceptual trilogy’s peaking arc ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ captures the band maneuvering further from caustic technical brutality into neuron-stretching nausea, centering their attack upon occasionally dissonant and erratically paced songs which tread more readily into hypnotic rhythms and deeper blackened territory on this third cycle. Densely written and pulverizing by default their work had already breached abstracted forms on prior releases and here all comes in no less frequent waves of mind palace raiding riff-driven death metal faceted within high-rate, layer-peeling tangent which preserves their brutal tension by way of a darkest, haze-ridden presence.

Darkside Ritual formed via vocalist/guitarist Juan Mondragón (Necronos, Muerto, Utter Silence Records) at some point prior to 2017 with a vision for introspective, celestially sighted blackened death metal delivered at high-intensity with technical and abstract riffcraft in mind. At least that is how I’d describe their debut LP (‘Earthly Vulgarity‘, 2017) as its tense technical death metal sound had an uncertain merger with the atmospheric and surreal. When tracing the odd-angled riffs and piano interludes I’d found a surreal yet ambitiously crafted death metal record. I believe I’d called it “technical blackened death metal” in brief mention on a Death Metal You Missed… list that year, a release defined by raw technical riffing and an aggressive meter. Their immediate follow-up EP (‘The Nucleic Premise‘, 2018) hadn’t tempered the band’s taste for unique atmosphere and production values still showing some interest in bluntly beaten technical oddity, abstract and often machine gunned grooves that’d swerved quicker and more frequently than the band’s debut. To me this loosely recalled the earliest days of Kataklysm, something a bit off-color and frantic in its clobber. I’m not one to sneer at imperfect sound design if it serves the personality of the band and in Darkside Ritual‘s case you’ll quickly come to expect a different render, a raw “unaltered” sound applied to each release, but in every case you get an ambitious, not-so perfectionist underground death metal record.

Each of Darkside Ritual‘s three records features a different line-up which evolves their sound to some degree and this’d been most impactful on their sophomore LP (‘Relics of Tyranny‘, 2020) which I’d say served as a paradigm shift for the group. The rhythm section featured members of stoner/doom metal band Stoom and though the style was still directed by Mondragón‘s hand they’d tempered in some slower, headier atmospheric ideas which eased their focus on dry tech-death/avant-garde tonality (though you’ll find it in the drum sound and especially “The Nucleic Promise”.) At that point the band’s sound inhabited a curious headspace between the thrashing, semi-melodic fluxion of blackened death metal, something like the second At the Gates album, which was still technical death to some degree but delivered with movement that fans of 2000’s The Chasm or Execration would appreciate. We could rightfully consider ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ a follow-up and a complete refinement of what they were aiming for on ‘Relics of Tyranny’, not so much a better second draft but a capture of the delirium and intensity of past work better melded into its own storming, chasmic form.

In addition to returning bassist Martin Torres (Stoom) and Mondragón the line-up for ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ features guitarist Mauricio Hernández and drummer Iván Herrera (Summoning Death) both of whom also feature in Necronos. This particular configuration not only plays tighter as a unit but finds themselves more willing to veer off into different techniques and tangents beyond previous efforts, serving each song its own unreal temperament. I mean, you’re going to feel the thump of the bass drum in your guts first based on how they’ve done the mixing here but dropping into the whorl of cosmic death they’ve built here feels like a true vortex of wills clashing compared to the band’s sophomore release. You’ll get what I mean the moment opener “Shards of Eye” hits and begins tracing its knotted rhythmus through the skilled step of Herrera, taking on a Scandinavian blackened death feeling amidst the spaced dual guitar interest that develops within the first four or so minutes of the song. Where I’d locked into Darkside Ritual‘s vision most readily came around the quick-change that occurs at the ~4:21 minute mark, more of a circa 2004 The Chasm level of movement in that riff. It is a grand introduction but also a level of momentum the rest of the album can easily live up to and trounce as the intensity of these six pieces only ramps up as they carry on.

While I’d been inclined to approach Darkside Ritual‘s sound with an ear for ‘old school’ technical death metal in general they aren’t necessarily aiming for something retro or guided by reference though the first impression they leave on this album tends toward the Dissection-esque side of ‘The Spell of Retribution‘ when considering the opener and how it hands that baton to the rapturous wheeling of “Cranial Sacrilege“, arguably one of the most immediate and striking pieces on the album on first pass. Where this song hits best is within repeated listens of the full album as it provides one of the more surreal hammers on Side A and more completely introduces the skillful and patient hand of their rhythms this time around. For my own taste this piece is symptomatic of a greater merger between worlds, best realized ambitions via access to broader rhythmic ouevre which includes ancient and modern black, death and even thrashing modes.

Granted things only continue to escalate song-over-song here, as stated, and this means the most undeniable peak of the first half is debatable since “To Behold the Miracle of Extinction” only tucks deeper into this introspective realm of spaced rants, thrumming basslines and its own particularly slippery thrashing groove (hits around ~1:16 minutes in. There is a sort of intensity to the song’s blaze-handed central groove as it develops from that point which reminds me of ‘Necroticism‘-era Carcass level of activity (by way of ‘Return to the Void‘), and this is also where the work of the bassist is most prominent in feature (see also: ~4:00 minute mark); Stark, spacious and shouted outward the increasingly declarative roar through ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ deserves some mention here as it carries its cadence through “Treacherous Mass” which, to me has a throat-scraping coldness to it which reminds me of Obliveon‘s ‘Nemesis‘ slightly. I particularly like the stamp the drumming leaves on this piece, a stark and thrashing death metal piece which continues to roll and tumble through its rhythmic upshot, not too far from the first record from Aenigmatum to some degree though maybe slightly more chill.

You might think you’ve accidentally swapped to another album as “Age of Upheaval” introduces itself through psych-shaped dread, tribal groove and extended spoken layers but this turns out to be the black metal side of the band sparking up something new. It gives the album a unique deeper cut and some additional depth before taking the thread to more of a blackened death assault as the pace picks up. While this song’d felt like an interruption to the glorious tunneled vision of ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ to start I’d eventually found it added to the variety within the experience and feeds the greater arcing motion of the full album as it closes. Otherwise “Yield for Negativa” is the bookend, the thrashing of the beast at the lowest depth achieved as both the longest and most kicked-at piece on the full listen. The full listen doesn’t overstay its welcome, holds the hammer over head throughout and balances its threat with pieces which suit the coldly introspective nature of Darkside Ritual‘s ongoing theme. It is a suitable point of evolution as well as an important keystone for the trilogy of themed albums achieved thus far.

The fact that I’ve mentioned every single track on this album in review isn’t for the sake of padding but moreso that I’d found every song essential to the greater whole, a wholly underground death metal experience cut back to the most essential showcase of their hammer, their brains and the drift out of mind and into space which occurs within. As the experience generates its intense blackened death fusion I’d found it intensely immersive, built upon solid riffcraft and strong flexion of the band’s increased rhythmic abilities in general. This is the sort of work which doesn’t need a million hands polishing every edge smooth, it retains its edge by way of a dark and blunted tonality which suits their venture and themes well. Likewise the album art from Ricardo Gonzalez with its red and teal on black palette makes for striking imagery, a vision of bodily horror and transcendence which is fittingly applied to ‘Chambers of Deathlessness‘. Overall this is the type of blackened and finessed but still wrathful death metal I can easily hang with and enjoy through regular spins. A very high recommendation.

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