Presented as an adversarial second coming meant to staunch the insidious nox of christendom and confront the mesmerizing darkness of death this sophomore full-length album from Talca, Chile-based death metal quartet GODLESS thrives within its heightened state of chaotic entanglement and impious wrath. ‘Adversus Parousia‘ retains and extends the somewhat challenging abstraction of their debut, weaponizing tonal grime and rugged force unto a grotesque screed of formidable occult death music. Spectacularly bleak and unpredictive as their action is here there’ll be no denying the murderous carve of the riffcraft at hand here as their efforts resound with the core tenets of the sub-genre as much as they bend them.

Sworn to praise death and incite irreligious nature Godless formed circa 1997 primarily inspired by 90’s United States death metal as well as their local dark death metal scene. Their earlier recordings brought dual-vocal mania a la early Deicide alongside rhythms indicative of pre-‘Domination‘ Morbid Angel and of course Immolation-esque trod. There were a couple versions of their first demo, often paired with rehearsal or live tracks but I believe the best compilation is ‘Litaniae Mortuorum -Nihil Genus-‘ where we find the band’s sound implied as a natural fixture nearby compatriots Unaussprechlichen Kulten and Dominus Xul. Propagating an infernal, aggressive style of death metal from those foundations their sound was built out into something fundamentally similar to Drawn and Quartered by the time their ‘Irreligiosus Nemine Discrepante‘ EP would release in 2006 where bounding and brutal movement was emphasized beyond their maze of riffs. The formative years of the band are worth delving into largely per their unaltered take on the pure underground death metal of the era, slithering and brutal stuff with uniquely stoic blasphemic lyrics.

Chaotic yet militant in its abstraction of feral death-noise hostility Godless‘ debut full-length (‘Ecce Homo: Post Lux Tenebras, Pulsio XIII Ultima Ratio‘, 2010) appeared in an age of intentionally harsh and cruelly atmospheric muse and represents challenging, not-so tuneful modus taken on beyond the ‘old school’ canon-in-fluxion of their formative years. This is generally reflected and exaggerated within the duration of ‘Adversus Parousia‘ but not without some of the dissonant, semi-technical dissolve explored within the two EPs that’d released in the interim including the wrathful 2016’s ‘Sic Luceat Vacuum Nostrum‘ and gloom nuked follow-up ‘Omega Omnipotens‘ (2017) where each’d sown their own form of gnarled, warmed-over horror. The returning fandom will immediately recognize the evolution of the band within this new album as it is less a reinvention and moreso a restatement of their long developed hand.

From the first roll through opener “Ingenitus-Ekstasis” you’ll note vocalist V.D.A. Irrenemidis hasn’t lost any of his wildly expressive snarl, pulling disgusted growls from the upper lung rather than the gut as the piece tramples into oddly bent rhythmic tangent. The riffcraft which directs the piece is abstracted and tonally dire, manifested in similar general modus as the band’s debut but with greater concerted squaring between the two guitarists as longtime (now former) guitarist Rod Fockale and guitarist/bassist Gioser Nasare weave in and out of corrosive synchrony. Rather than approach an outwardly technical approach these are grime-ridden, foreboding movements pocked by frequently shifting tempo and unsettling rant where the riff count is high but the composition is purposefully infernal, vague yet dramatically struck.

For my taste that opening piece is enough to sell the album when parsed for its detail, temperament and general selection of tones. From the bass guitar’s hideous backgrounded springing to the ratty, pitch black drone of the two main guitar channels all is coded for chaotic and wrathful feats which ‘Adversus Parousia‘ delivers one after another. Standout single “Omega Omnipotens: Hosanna in Nullificatio” delivers each readily while carrying a dark ‘Dawn of Possession‘-esque groove and chase through its form, landing points of doomed pause and whipping volley via the meandering waltz through. Though I’m not sure I’d describe Godless‘ work here as dissonant in the most familiar sense there is a certain obfuscated, frantic nature to each piece which is well served by the caustic and frustrated sound design on offer.

The passage from “Omega Omnipotens: Hosanna in Nullificatio” unto “Plaga Vobiscum (Et Cum Spiritu Tuo)” offers one of several examples of the flow through ‘Adversus Parousia‘ as intentioned connectivity between pieces, a feature which’d lent itself well to repeated listening. The doomed out intro to Side A closer “Pneuma-Khaos” offers a point of rare focus to start, a miserable lunge which breaks up the first half’s impact and allows plenty of room for Irrenemidis‘ vocals to overtake the atmosphere at hand with some of the more noxious multi-layered moments on the album. The song ultimately falls back into Godless‘ churning action but overall this is a well-placed dynamic expansion of the thus far established palette in hand and one which carries over into Side B opener “Ekstasis-Cosmogravis”.

Late album set “Numenlagneia” represents the temperamental yet finely contiguous reach of ‘Adversus Parousia‘ overall wherein elements of Incantation-esque classicism provide one of the more straight forward compositions on the album while also blurring and suffocating that thought in practice. It isn’t the most ruthless or challenging song on the full listen but rather a point of control and clangor within the late album manifesto. “Ultraticum Infinita Omnium in Nihilum” probably stands out more in the sense that it pulls from the discordant harangue of Side A for some of its intensity, shoring up to the level of “Omega Omnipotens: Hosanna in Nullificatio” in general before the final piece rattles out; The full listen brings intense momentum per the suggested high-rate flow written into these eight pieces though it doesn’t end with any sort of fanfare or haughty conclusion.

‘Adversus Parousia‘ is the bleakest, grimiest skull-scrambling effort from Godless to date thanks to the carbonized filth of their sound design and a marked intensification of the often challenging style of composition the band’ve been known for since their debut. Though there is precedence for this style of death metal in both modern and ‘old school’ aged munition the obscured subject matter (well, beyond death) and delirious restlessness of their work stands out in mind for the thread it ultimately weaves. One moment their vision makes total sense and appears to reach back into arcane death for its summon and the next they’ve shattered that idea apart and scried a delirious, even more diabolic path from the pieces.

That imbalance struck between faintly familiar underground traditions and their own abstracted oppressive mulling is especially fine when the whole of the album is considered and experienced as a sitting rather than piecemeal. I’d found myself wholly lost in the jagged obsidian claustrophobia their tunnel’d created, obsessed with both the sound and the riff of it all and how that’d been translated into the aesthetic/cover art included. Easily one of the darkest, most unkempt bouts of Chilean death metal I’ve heard in some time. A very high recommendation.

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