Genre : Progressive death metal, Deathgaze, Post-metal, Atmospheric black metal
Released : June 10th, 2022
Label : Metal Blade Records
FFO : Rivers of Nihil, Ne Obliviscaris, Alcest, Black Crown Initiate
I only discovered Kardashev last winter with the re-issue of their EP/short album "The Baring of Shadows" and thought their self-coined style of "deathgaze" mixed in with elements of post, prog and black metal to be very compelling despite having some issues with production and certain songwriting choices.
On "Liminal Rite", Kardashev return with an hour-long conceptual album which deals (from what I've gathered) with an elderly man progressively reaching the final stages of his life and loosing his grip on reality more and more as the story unfolds.
This bleak and deeply melancholic subject matter sets a perfect canvas for Kardashev to display their genre-bending compositional skills to full effect, with vocalist Mark Garrett perfectly embodying both the macabre, poetic beauty and harrowing despair of the album's narrative through his impressive vocal flexibility.
Guitars and orchestral arrangements seemlessly shift between a broad palette of emotions and styles too throughout this hour-long descent into decay while the drums steadily pave the way throughout with relentless pummeling intensity.
Now, sadly, I do have a major issue with the production on this album.
The drums are engineered in a way that is borderline unpleasant to the ear and waters down important elements of the band's sound, like certain melodic guitar passages.
Often times the mix feels either too "synthetic" or too messy and overcrowded which greatly affects the experience that this otherwisely very well rounded and structured album has to offer.
I also feel like the album looses momentum here and there during longer sections where the songwriting puts its shape-shifting nature on hold, but that might be just me having a little ADHD around the edges.
Aside from that, "Liminal Rite" is quite an intense and compelling album both musically and conceptually, and "Beyond the Passage of Embers" is one of the best album closing tracks I've heard this year so far.
I don't want to spoil it but the way in which it ties both the album's music and story, concluding the spoken word segments that structure the album's narrative is simply brilliant and definitely came as a jaw-dropping surprise in its last minutes.
Definitely a record that deserves the attention of any fan of progressive death metal despite suffering from impeding production flaws; the performances and songwriting are able to salvage the greatness that lies at "Liminal Rite" 's core.
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