Shepherd Of The Dead - Ancient Burials (Review)

US based Technical Deathcore outfit Ancient Burials enters the new decade with a brand new album - "Shepherd Of The Dead" after dropping a few singles in 2019. This year has already started with some heavy Deathcore records already, with this album being no exception!


Starting off with some technical riffs and breakdown, "Eviscerate" transitions into the slamming brutal realm before bleeding into "Manifest". This song accounts for a melodic shred-y solo in the style of Mental Cruelty. The title track of the album possesses some of the interesting riffs - ranging from Dissonant Chords to Gojira pick scrapes to Pig Squeals. The band then slows down for  a melodic yet dissonance filled slow paced song: "Bound by Perdition".


"The Dissolution of Self" leads us to the second part of the album where the tracks take a whole new route of horror, cold and melancholy soundscape, as evident by the song "Malevolent" and "Indictment". The album closure "I felt the face of God turn Grim" is rather a groovy song with a melodic guitar solo, ending itself with a beautiful clean outro.


Guitar structures range from being technical to dissonant chords to absolute slam chugs! Drums and Bass adds much needed heaviness to the album, aiding to the better production value of the album. From high screams to guttural lows, the Vocals sound beastly in the record (somewhat reminds me of  “A Hill To Die Upon). It is however the songwriting that paints a grim, cold and a horror atmosphere, prevailing throughout the run-time of the album. Ancient Burials add nothing new with this record to the vast catalog of Blackened Deathcore, it just presents a better version of the style proven successful by bands like Mental Cruelty, Abiotic and Vale of Pnath.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Website: Ancient Burials Official

Genre: Technical Deathcore, Blackened Deathcore

FFO: Mental Cruelty, Aversions Crown, Reaping Asmodeia, Abiotic

Release Worldwide: 8th January, 2022.

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