Review Summary: Brutal and beautiful.
Centuries of Decay’s sophomore album,
A Monument to Oblivion, is a seamlessly woven experience that blends several styles of metal together. Using labyrinthian progressions, breakneck death metal riffage, a peppering of black metal, and a healthy dose of doom’s trouncing viciousness,
A Monument to Oblivion is an unforgiving peregrination, filled with palpable, descriptive soundscapes that are guaranteed to satiate metal fans’ appetites. However, for all the pummelling brutality this record provides, where
A Monument to Oblivion excels most is in its effective arrangements, and the band’s use of grand melodies and harmonies to create this juxtaposition of night and day; David and Goliath; hope and forlorn. “Between the Waves of Grief” is a beautifully crafted track that effectively synthesizes this brutal cacophony of ferocious drums and grinding guitar parts, using a slew of rhythm changes to give off this elasticated feel. What makes the song stand out so much though is the introduction of these glimmering moments of hope – the impassioned, melodious solos and gossamer vocal harmonies being crushed and buried under the unrelenting chaos which surrounds them. These passages are positioned so perfectly in the mix, the band definitely get their point across and make the track a genuinely cathartic moment on
A Monument to Oblivion. Other highlights come from the sludgy “The Great Divide”, which, in a similar vein to “Between the Waves of Grief”, puts in the work and builds up this looming tension to a fever pitch, before blowing the top off it with a well-deserved full-frontal assault of soaring solos and clean vocals. Album closer “Tempest” serves as a suitably satisfying conclusion for
A Monument to Oblivion and encompasses all of the album’s sensibilities, while “A Monument to Oblivion” has so many solemn moments that help fuel the song’s excellent crescendos and brutally whirling riffs.
A Monument to Oblivion isn’t an easy listen, as is the case with most music of this sort – it’s a large album that assaults your senses for sixty minutes, after all. It’s the kind of album that asks you to allot some time to it so you can uncover its many rewards, and, thankfully, that request isn’t a big ask when you consider the quality on offer here. Once you start to familiarise yourself with the songs, you’ll quickly discover one of the strongest metal records of 2025. Centuries of Decay mean business on
A Monument to Oblivion, and the time spent listening to it is certainly worthwhile in the end. You’ll get a lot of mileage from this record; the songwriting is intricate, heavy, and well arranged, but the secret to its success comes from the melodic elements scattered throughout that bolster the harsh aspects of Centuries of Decay’s sound, and make a real impression on the album as a whole.
