Phrenelith

Phrenelith

Ashen Womb

Dark Descent

Copenhagen’s Phrenelith emerge from the darkness once again with their third and most unholy full-length offering, Ashen Womb. Seven sinister funeral marches, draped in bleak and blackened atmosphere: a lens into the forthcoming end of times.A droning tone fades in, opening up a slow dirge which eases one into the apocalyptic explosion of death that will follow for the next forty minutes.Guitars anxiously scale the fretboard and weave morose melodies while drums pound and smash with the force of the Chicxulub impactor. Interspersed between the infernal, seismic, blackened stampedes are droning psychedelia and ambient noise interludes, immersing one further into the ever growing darkness. But there are also moments of overwhelming beauty, like on tracks “Nebulae” and the eponymous “Ashen Womb,” where Phrenelith indulge in the repetition of their sinister melodies, layering serpentining guitars atop each other, spinning a web of desolate harmonies around the listener.With Ashen Womb, Phrenelith give one the foretold sound of the apocalypse, but whether it’s a warning or a celebration is yet undecided.

Phrenelith

Desolate Endscape

Dark Descent

Issuing forth like a deadly miasma from the tombs of subterranean Copenhagen, Phrenelith unleash their debut full-length like the hounds of Hades themselves. Coming off a spate of well-received demos in addition to a split with Spectral Voice on Dark Descent Records Records, plus their Chimaerian Offspring Cassette EP on Extremely Rotten Records, the sound is fetid, guttural and gasping. Like a half-decomposed corpse disinterred from the marshlands, this slithering rotten filth is hideously attractive, repulsively inviting in its gruesome fascination. A fine sense of poise and grandeur leads to unusual progressions and neck-snapping rhythmic variations. Atonal apocalyptic melodies collide with off-kilter riff work, crossing the lines between traditional filthy death metal found on the lost tapes of the ’80s alongside splendid maniacal hooks a mile wide which will stand the test of time. This is the Desolate Endscape—abandon hope and embark on the descent.