Drofnosura - Ritual Of Split Tongues - review
Drofnosura - Ritual Of Split Tongues - review
Band
Drofnosura Album
Ritual Of Split Tongues Style
Atmospheric sludge metal Release date
October 24, 2025 Tracklist
01. Selection Of A Corpse02. Kapala Kriya
03. The Ritual Of Split Tongues
04. Ἐγείρω
05. The Well Of Seven Heads
06. Desounen
A review by
musclassia December 15, 2025
This is the second album from Canadian trio Drofnosura, coming six years after debut record Voidfever. The band’s style in the album’s promotional material is described as a mix of sludge, doom, black and post-metal; while I can’t hear much black metal, the other genres are all firmly present here, as are more disparate influences such as dissonant death metal and even grunge. Ritual Of Split Tongues exhibits the long songs and dynamics of post-metal, but the music shaping those ebbs and flows is ugly and punishing in a way that goes far beyond the typical palette of post-metal, and even of progenitors such as Neurosis. Perhaps the ‘atmospheric sludge metal’ tag once used for this style is more fitting, as grim sludge is a recurring presence across the album, but even that fails to truly encompass the alienating vibes and sheer oddness of Drofnosura’s music.
With four out of six songs passing the 10-minute barrier (and two hitting or exceeding 15 minutes), there’s a lot of time for ponderous exploration, and several tracks have prolonged openings that gradually develop from ambience or clean guitar textures into something more twisted. There’s also a range of vocal styles across the album, which perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise considering all three members are credited with vocals; certain softer sequences are joined by whispers or spoken word, but the more common techniques are pained high-pitched shrieks and quite peculiar clean vocals. When more impassioned (such as on closing song “Desounen”), these take on a somewhat classic doom metal form, but the more frequent cleans have a tone and delivery to them that feels quite abnormal for music as dark and expansive as this. With time to ponder it, I’ve found myself more and more inclined to compare to grunge vocalists, particularly Layne Staley of Alice In Chains, as well as the similarly unorthodox Abraham.
Alongside all of this is a variety in guitar approaches, but the use of dissonance is a consistent feature pretty much throughout. Opening track “Selection Of A Corpse”, the shortest ‘full’ song here, flickers between riffs with more in line with sludge and death metal, but whether there’s more extreme tremolos or more bruising sludge attacks, there’s frequent dissonant tonality, and when rendered courtesy of arpeggios or semi-melodic textures, it takes my mind a bit to the more recent Ulcerate records, or perhaps Nero Di Marte. While vocals and guitars can up the ante of extremity, the drums never devolve into blasting, instead supporting the trudging feel of the grimmer passages with stomping rhythms and plenty of tom hits.
The tracks range in how single-minded or varied they are. “Kapala Kriya” is a fairly linear deterioration from sparse, almost psychedelic clean guitar into progressively sinister waters, escalating the degree of dissonance until both vocals and guitars turn harsher and distorted. Closing track “Desounen” is also very sonically consistent, but is also a bit of an aberration on the record, as it has a sorrowful, melancholic tone, languid pace and a style far more rooted in doom than the other songs on the album. There are glimpses of dissonance or death metal tremolo, but by and large “Desounen” eschews the nastier elements of Drofnosura’s sound.
On the flip side, you have arguably the two best songs on the record, both of which feature considerably more variety. The title track, while spacious and ominous at the outset, and in subsequent lulls later in the song, gets bleak and twisted in several moments, with deep gargled growls, off-kilter dissonant guitar, and gnarly sludge riffs reminiscent of Ether Coven. More surprising, however, are the peculiar synth/electronic elements, and the multiple discordant guitar solos, one of which kicks in a couple of minutes from the end and concludes the track in staggering style. “The Well Of Seven Heads” again opens with just tom-heavy drums and ominous ambience, turning gradually bleaker, but it goes heavier on the sludge than perhaps the rest of the record. There are fierce riffs that remind me of what modern British sludge bands such as Wren, Conjurer or Row Of Ashes might veer towards, and they pummel the listener into submission across many minutes.
The length of both the songs on Ritual Of Split Tongues and the album as a whole may be offputting to some people due to its bleakness; it also perhaps overdoes it with very similar sparse, quiet openings to most tracks, but the overall vibe of the record is really striking in a way that has few natural comparators, and the execution is by and large very impressive.
Written on 15.12.2025 by
Written on 15.12.2025 by
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Based on the cover art I expected some dissonant death metal a la Defacement, but I didn't expect clean vocals and 15 minute long songs.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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