A cursed offering of madness flayed and jettisoned into void this sophomore full-length album from Kansas-based atmospheric death metal band THAUMATURGY promises a despairing collapse into death magick and rabid lunacy as they successfully transition from solo act to notable trio. Skinned and melted atop their own pyre these pieces illuminate as they burn, revealing depth within a previously dim-lit cavern as arrangements sophisticate and expression swells within ‘Pestilential Hymns‘. Their grip upon dread only tightens as a unit where collective broad-yet-classicist tastes surprisingly suffer no heinous congestion or ruinous clash herein and that focus makes for a distinct and even more engaging second record.

Spirited into public view circa 2021 as a solo project by way of musician KT‘s finagling of the natural connectivity between atmospheric death metal, war metal, and death/doom metal Thaumaturgy might’ve been stiff in movement to some degree on their debut EP (‘Charnel Gnosis‘, 2021) but it’d been an inspired start out of the blue nonetheless. At that point I’d placed their sound somewhere between the blurry gloom of Wrathprayer and the doomed depths of Into Coffin, a collage of bestial and disordered death metal sounds. Beyond that point their work would seek new interest by way of increasingly dissonant climes on a debut LP (‘Tenebrous Oblations‘, 2023) which I’d reviewed favorably at the time, appreciating its style without finding the experience memorable in terms of personage beyond the norm. For album number two the band’s expansion into a trio provides notable extra dimensional interest, offering an exponentially more engaging release.

Using broader strokes of melancholic black metal to loosen their transitional movements from riff to riff Thaumaturgy‘s guitar work still resembles blackened death metal from an atmospheric stance, something like late 90’s Aeternus to some degree (see: “Plague Ritual“), within these seven ~5-6 minute songs most of which feature only intermittent reprise of verse-like statements. “The Shadow Approaches” offers a fine example of this as its crossing of USDM escalated brutality seeps into tremolo-picked variation in order to melt towards its next movement, not unlike Grave Miasma from a more ranting headspace. The default setting for the band’s most direct treatment of death metal is now more distinctly braced by traits from early 90’s Dutch death metal militance in response to the early Floridian scenery and the final third of said song showcases how that can still work despite the blackened death vortex enveloping it.

Before absorbing deeper into their revised take on blackened death Thaumaturgy open ‘Pestilential Hymns‘ with the more immediately death metal-faced attack of “Neuroticism Triumphant” with its strangely spongey rhythm guitar tones and a deep-set layer of keys/synth lurking about. First impressions split the difference between ‘Testimony of the Ancients‘, the aforementioned (pre-2001) Aeternus and The Chasm depending on the movement while the vocals offer the most clear example of change beyond past releases up front. I don’t know who new members TG and DS are or what their roles are but it appears that the trio’ve taken on a dual vocal approach where a more sickly but intelligible ‘old school’ death metal growl and deeper, more guttural takes trade off (see: “The Oncologist’s Hymn”) and this is the extra bit of characterization I’d felt the band’s previous LP needed to elevate beyond its tunneling riff exercises.

The first half of ‘Pestilential Hymns‘ finds an excellent balance between brutality, meandering dread, and an imposing thrum of its own but as we strike down upon Side B we find a different type of atmosphere manifested. This is particularly felt via “Awaken Ares” where the aforementioned keys and storming death metal confrontation align with mid-paced black metal trampling, achieving a doomed sway in its second half. Sure the two final songs revert to balance in more ‘old school’ death metal frontage but there is at least some manner of hingepoint which denotes passage from the opening moments toward the end. The slithering pulse of closer “Forced March” intensifying alongside shrieked vocals and rattling blasts almost recalls the spasticity of early Kataklysm as it manifests and that might be one of the more notable moments as Thaumaturgy draw the album to a close.

After some considerable time spent with ‘Pestilential Hymns‘ I’ve still some smaller gripes with over-extended pieces and some tonal redundancies creeping in as a result but these are minor thoughts which are easily overwhelmed by the inspired, riff-crawling invention found in several of these songs. We could debate feeling vs. atmosphere with regards to death metal proper but I’d found this record has and inspired almost ‘The Spell of Retribution‘-esque charm as it’d introduce itself anew. The first half of this album proves Thaumaturgy have only benefitted in the process of expanding into a larger collaboration and the second half ensures they’ve covered all possible bases within their blackened death wanderlust where some true enthusiasm for extreme metal lies within each corner of their craftsmanship. Again it is hard not to sit with any of the band’s work and not appreciate what pours from their cauldron but this time around it feels like they’ve struck closer to a truly personalized development and as a result it is their best material to date per my own taste. A high recommendation.

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