Review Summary: Forgive me father, I have taken a drink.
Since crawling out of a swamp in Georgia, Atlanta (there’s swamps in Atlanta right?) Father Befouled has been at the helm of some of death metal’s more murkier sounds. Still, the doom-laden approach to deeply robust soundscapes has led them on a predictable course for almost two decades now. Wailing feedback, cavernous drums, a guitar solo (or two) and riffs of concrete have defined Father Befouled as an act.
Crowned in Veneficum doesn’t separate itself from this formula. As if fans would want it to.
Yet,
Crowned in Veneficum might as well be a carbon-copy of the thunderous tombstone entries before it. “Unheavenly Catechesis” flurries off in a mishmash of blast beats and slower paced guitar foolery. Discordant leads punch through the track’s back bone before a meatier punch is introduced. The rest of “Unheavenly Catechesis” saunters with heavy vigor, often swapping out gravel-made growls with flamboyant guitar solos. There’s no finesse here—just a recipe that works. “Dethroned Enslavement” is likely born from the same chasmic underworld as the opener. There’s a moment of reprieve, with “His Throne Decayed” acting as an instrumental halfway marker void of the deathly roar present on every other track. Unfortunately, this track isn’t much of a contrast, failing to break a sizable gap in the rambunctious, slow march of “Salivating Faithlessness” and “Dethroned Enslavement”.
While “Miasmas Of Sodom”, “Katabatic Deliverance” and much of the back half follow the same heavily trodden paths as the opening songs, there is progression here—subtle rites and shifts that carry the listener on what are the heavier pilgrimages of the year. “Katabatic Deliverance” is a banger, specifically a banger of heads and an unrelenting showcase of marching riffs and lurching growls. Still, the sound here is predictably predictable and tracks cry out for a diverse shake up. It never comes. With the album’s instrumental tracks simply being a placeholder before the usual deathly doom suspects trundle in.
Even as
Crowned in Veneficum moves towards “Utter Abomination” (a track that is anything but by the way…), the pacing does shift into monolithic doom motions. Minimalistic feedback washes in and out of single note melodies that burn like acid on the skin. If anything, the track itself is an indication of what Father Befouled could manage as a fully-fledged funeral doom act, albeit the standard practice of lumbering riffs and deep vocal passages would remain the same. Because the track itself spends its introduction simply wandering around, the contrast of faster, more traditional death metal style becomes more impactful. It’s a shame that the group waited until the album’s eleventh hour to showcase such excellent awareness. Still,
Crowned in Veneficum sits comfortably in the realms of perfectly good, expectedly filthy death metal. This poisonous recipe still works.
