ASPHYXIUM ZINE

Monday, February 20, 2023

Full Length Review: Sermon "Till Birth Do Us Part" (Bitume Prods) by Brynn Kali StarDew

Band: Sermon
Location: İzmir
Country: Turkey
Genre: Gothic doom metal
Format: CD, digital
Release date: February 10, 2023
The first track "Posthumous" didn’t really strike me as amazing, but as it went on I found it to be a really good song. I’m not saying anything about the vocals they were fine, I just can’t really understand them. Overall the guitar and drum beats make a really solid track. Also, I get the vibe that the lyrics are about religion which is refreshing because most metal isn’t and I’m not against the Christian faith to put it simply. Track three "Flawless Entropy" was good, I liked that at 5:20 you could kind of start to understand somebody which made it sound hella deep like he was getting real with you here for a minute!
Moving on to track four "Requitement", I heard something about a Tidal Wave which was by melodic guitar riffs and bell-like sounds that remind me of old black metal bands from 2011. Pretty standard Black metal stuff here. I’m not a big fan, but this was actually pretty easy to listen to. Cerulean I definitely get the funeral vibes in this song, and it got a little Marilyn Manson-esque guitar riff for a second around 3:05. I heard something in this song about how “he will reign”. I'm guessing this is about Jesus Christ? Very interesting stuff here, I think I am really starting to see what they are going for and I like it!
Track six "Destined to Decline" had a really good intro that I thought sounded really good and I don’t really care that I can’t understand what he is saying. The drums sounded nice at 3:23! The echo of the screeching sounds in his voice sounds really metal. The end of the song was really interesting. They definitely get mad props for giving us some understandable lyrics!
"Gnostic Dissensus" had a definite techno sound at the beginning of the track which turned into a power metal kind of jam, the vocals sounded really good with it though and I just think they really did a good job mixing it up here, it almost sounds like an entirely different band at times. The final track The Jupiterian Effect wrapped it all up well, but it was sort of a sharp contrast to the song before. I feel like there is work that needs to be done on this track and the previous one to get the full conclusive effect I think they might be looking for on this track, that's just my opinion though. I thought all the bells and howling were good, but I would have liked to hear more techno-like beats at the beginning like on "Gnostic Dissensus"; it would have been even better. All in all a really good album, and look forward to seeing more from them in the future! -Brynn Kali StarDew

Songwriting: 9/10
Musicianship: 9/10
Memorability: 9/10
Production: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10

Lineup:
Harun Altun: Vocals
Durmuş Kalın: Lead guitars, keyboards, drum programming
Cem Barut: Rhythm guitars

Track list:
1. Posthumous
2. Silver Splinter
3. Flawless Entropy
4. Requitement
5. Cerulean
6. Destined To Decline
7. Gnostic Disensus
8. The Jupiterian Effect

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