Praise The Plague - Suffocating In The Current Of Time

2024-02-14 08:00:09

After damnation is before damnation: Praise The Plague are back with new material two and a half years after “The Obsidian Gate”. And this ‘stuff’ from the Berlin quintet is a touch rougher and angrier. The already nasty mix of black metal, doom and post sounds wants to be intensified even further, and, as the band puts it, they are marching directly towards their own decline. Accordingly, it bends brutally „Suffocating In The Current Of Time“ around the corner.

For the first harbinger, they chose the shortest song on the record, which still sums it up perfectly: in ‘only’ four and a half minutes, “Devourer” is out for raw, deep black destruction and exemplifies this with growing enthusiasm. The frontal presentation with changing tempo and putrid blackened doom skillfully increases the tension and rides on a powder keg. This can only be followed by “Throne Of Decay”, the long bouncer with a minute-long stay in the semi-melodic nowhere before an exuberant, oppressive monolith rises. Foaming, furious growls and screams whip through an oppressive and intoxicating giant.

“The Tide” also hits the eight-minute mark, but takes a different approach. Guttural notes meet a ponderous doom opening, the speed increases barely noticeably before Praise The Plague goes through the roof for the first time after two minutes. In addition to these infernal sprints, it is the nuances that really stick with you. The long, infernally melodic middle section mutates into a dramaturgically valuable piece of art and lays the foundation for a final explosion with unexpected force and raw, unbridled energy.

The big musical revolution doesn’t happen, but that doesn’t bother us in the least. After Praise The Plague clearly showed where their creative journey should go on their first two albums, they explore their possibilities fully and with growing enthusiasm on “Suffocating In The Current Of Time”. Even wilder and more rapid on the one hand, even more dark and desolate on the other, Black and Doom come together in a post-microcosm and dare to enter into an endless dance with decay and damnation. The uncompromising downfall can be so beautiful, so digestible and cumbersome.

Rating: 8/10

Available from: February 16, 2024
Available via: Lifeforce Records (Membrane)

Website: praisetheplague.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/praisetheplague