Dead to a Dying World – Litany (2015)

With plenty of high profile releases in 2015, Dead to a Dying World’s sophomore release “Litany” almost past by us unnoticed. Luckily, we gave it a few spins and were instantly blown away by the level of melancholy and musicianship found in this little gem. Featuring six tracks and over 70 minutes of Atmospheric Death-Doom/Black Metal /Post-Rock, this is one heck of a release from beginning to end.

Hailing from Texas and featuring guest appearances by members of Pallbearer and Sabbath Assembly, this release kicks off with the 16-minute “The Hunt Eternal”. Opening with some somber strings and rapidly progressing into Black Metal territory, this track suddenly changes into all-out melancholic Doom riffing and lush clean vocals. The band perfectly captures the catharsis of such an intense opening with brilliantly painful mellow soundscapes and female vocals. This sounds like Ash Borer-meets-Elend-meets-My Dying Bride and we love it.

As “Cicatrix” delivers a very eerie atmospheric break with some guest vocals of Jamie Myers-Waits of Sabbath Assembly, the band is fully catching their breath and surely preparing for the next onslaught. Keeping things bleak and punishing, “Eventide” delivers 14 minutes of brilliant atmosphere and very traditional Death-Doom elements wrapped around lush string arrangements. Our personal favorite track is the crushing “Beneath the Loam”, a song that slowly progresses into an intense climax that will leave people asking for mercy.

Before the closer we have another sort of instrumental interlude with “Sick & Sunder”, perfectly preparing the listener for the intense closer: “Narcissus”. This last song is another gem in terms of the hopelessness feeling that the band achieves to transmit with such powerful music. As a whole, “Litany” is one of those rare releases that you never want to stop listening and don’t need to skip any parts of it. The band has managed to craft six brilliant tracks that ooze emotions of despair, edging out some serious competition like Shape of Despair and My Dying Bride this year.

Label: Gilead Media

Release: October 16th, 2015

Genre: Death-Doom / Black Metal

Country: USA