AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: CEREMONY OF SILENCE — “PRIMAEVAL SACRIFICE”

On July 19th Willowtip Records will release Hálios, the second album from the Slovakian death/black metal band Ceremony of Silence. The label’s introduction of it is very intriguing:

Hálios represents the unborn luminous radiance, the all-pervading immutable light of the Universe, and our fundamental inherent nature. It is the thousand-rayed Sun, always in motion, but unchangeable, the axis mundi manifesting the sacred within our temporal world and serving as a bridge to the mythical time. The album sets forth on an eerie journey to this sacred dimension, reenacting the old stories inspired by the essence of the ancient Indo-European mythology, entwined in the obscure visions and dreams.

This introduction suggests that the music will be even deeper in its development of profound, soul-stirring atmosphere than this band’s first full-length, 2019’s Oútis (reviewed here), and that is indeed true. But it’s also true that Ceremony of Silence are still capable (indeed more so) of mounting head-spinning shock-and-awe assaults on the senses. Both the first single from the album and a second one we’re premiering today with a lyric video are proof of all that.

Photo Credit: Štefan Šimuni

I encountered that first single, “Serpent Slayer”, before listening to the rest of the album and quickly ejected a torrent of words about it here, before knowing we would be asked to host today’s premiere.

At first, that song seems intent on roughly scouring out its listener’s brain-pans and simultaneously pounding the scraped skulls into smithereens. And then it ignites into greater madness, shrill guitars twisting and soaring, drums blasting like weaponry, enraged roars coming for the throat.

Dissonance and deviance reign in the extravagant layerings of guitars-and-bass, fascinating in their technically impressive but strikingly bizarre high-speed twists and turns. The drumming is equally unpredictable and inventive, and its bursts of militaristic rattling, in particular, create an interesting contrast with the kaleidoscopic and chaotic convulsions going on around it.

When I listened the first time I was hoping for a guitar solo, just to see how high the band could rocket the jaw-dropping spectacle of “Serpent Slayer“, and thankfully they give us one near the end, just as delirious as one might hope for.

And now we turn to today’s premiere of “Primaeval Sacrifice“. Because it is the album’s opening song, you might guess that it was chosen as a way of setting expectations for the album as a whole, or at least as a way of quickly and strongly seizing attention — and it sure as hell does both things.

You’ll see that the lyrics align with the album’s conceptual themes. Expelled in monstrous roars and abyssal growls, they provide frightening allusions to myth and mysticism in the narration of self-sacrifice by a mortal king that becomes a step in a vast creation.

The music is itself equally frightening and unearthly. Backed by percussive discharges firing at gatling-gun rates of speed, sharp cymbal crashes, and enormous bass undulations, the guitars unspool manifestations of crazed and vicious delirium, demented and dissonant in their shrill, writhing and darting contortions.

The dissonant notes quiver and squeal, but also peal like warping chimes and miserably moan, as if steeped in agony. The notes spear the listener’s brain in ever more strident and disturbing sensations of sound, as if wailing in the pain of a mutilation that’s occurring in a dimension beyond human understanding.

It’s an exhilarating piece of music, to be sure, but also mind-bending and viscerally unsettling at its core, yet another intricate and technically impressive but also reality-fracturing escapade by these Slovakian madmen.

CEREMONY OF SILENCE Lineup:
N. – Vocals
Viliam Pilarčík – Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Matúš S. Ďurčík – Drums

Matúš S. Ďurčík is responsible for the album’s lyrics and artwork. It was produced by Miroslav Spevák and Viliam Pilarčík, engineered and mixed by Miroslav Spevák, and mastered by none other than Colin Marston.

Willowtip will make a lavish release of Hálios — on CD, cassette tape, and variant vinyl LP editions, as well as digitally, and album-related apparel is also available. Check out all the options via the links below:

PRE-ORDER:
https://ceremonyofsilence.bandcamp.com/album/h-lios
https://www.willowtip.com/bands/details/ceremony-of-silence-1.aspx

CEREMONY OF SILENCE:
https://www.facebook.com/ceremonyofsilence/
https://www.instagram.com/ceremony.of.silence/