Band:	Swallowed
Album:	Lunarterial
Style:	Blackened death metal, Death doom metal
Release date:	October 14, 2014
Guest review by:	Alex F

01. Opening Of The Key
02. Reverence Through Darkness
03. Arterial Mists Of Doom
04. Black Aura
05. Black Phlegm
06. Libations

The lights go out and you are quickly enshrouded in darkness. A frigid mist fills the room as all familiar surroundings fade into the growing fog, leaving you in a desolate foreign landscape. You desperately search for a sign of humanity's existence to no avail. Lunarterial is a world of suffering from which you cannot escape.

Swallowed's form of death metal is one so cavernous and so hellish it is akin to a torturous lashing. Lunarterial is the band's debut full length, yet it comes across as a mature and natural recording. Incorporating the riffing styles of 90's death metal but with an abstract take on song structures and direction, the album comes off as familiar yet unique. To further embellish the maniacal destruction, Swallowed incorporate a striking blend of production styles, with a raw edge on the guitars' tonalities, but a dense and grimy take on layering of instrumentation.

Each song flows into one another seamlessly, and it seems Swallowed simply gave up on separating each track by the end of the album, as the 50 minute endeavor is closed by a colossal 25 minute (that's right half of the album) monster. The album is best experienced as a whole, with the band progressing through a range of styles including black infused death metal to pure death doom riffing. Cutting out early from listening to this magnificent journey would not expose the listener to the full arsenal of Swallowed's torture-tools.

The riffs themselves do not seem to adhere to any predetermined stylistic structure, but rather take elements from old school death metal, modern funeral, and death-doom, to manifest a horrific beast. Haunting melodies creep into your skin causing you to shiver and sweat, while unconventional beats add another layer to the unique skills Swallowed possess. They play out riffs like a dying man clinging to life, building a dreadful suspense that is let loose in a barrage of dissonant chaos, repeating this process until the listener is left weary and lacking the will to go on.

To come this far without even mentioning the vocals should be a crime, as they are possibly the most vile part of the album. Ranging from manic whispers into the abyss to full on shrieks, growls, and screams, a demon is birthed into the world. Following the patterns of the riffing, and straying from conventional structure, the echoes of suffering ring in your ears in an impressively vivid manner.

While the descriptions can most closely be related to those of torture and agony, Lunarterial is a one-of-a-kind experience that will leave you yearning for more. Like masochistic tendencies, the pain will become addicting, and if the modern wave of cavernous death metal has you even remotely interested, you will definitely find enjoyment from the behemoth of a recording that is Lunarterial.