Centuries Of Decay - A Monument To Oblivion - review
Centuries Of Decay - A Monument To Oblivion - review
Band
Centuries Of Decay Album
A Monument To Oblivion Style
Progressive death metal Release date
August 01, 2025 Tracklist
01. Cauterize02. Between The Waves Of Grief
03. To Dust
04. A Monument To Oblivion
05. The Great Divide
06. Wake
07. Tempest
A review by
musclassia August 07, 2025
Centuries Of Decay’s sophomore record, coming 8 years after their self-titled debut, is probably easiest described as progressive death metal, although that descriptor only tells part of the story. The songs are long (all 7 are over 6 minutes, and over half over 9 minutes), complex in structure, rhythm and technicality, and balance extremity with melodic elements, but there’s more to the album’s expansive story. Alongside elements of black metal, some of the atmospheric parts hint to doom or post-metal influences, while the album’s extremity on several occasions delves into tech- and dissodeath territory, in brief moments almost reminding me of Ulcerate. It’s a delectable combination of sounds that come together remarkably well across the album’s hour-long runtime.
It gets off to a very strong start with “Cauterize”; tribal world percussion and subsequently tom-heavy drumming establish a powerful atmosphere early on that leads into Gojira-meets-dissodeath buzzing, before the first main riff of the verse balances bludgeoning heaviness with rhythmic groove. The initial vocals are growling and howling; the chorus is more spacious, with blasts replaced by double bass patterns along with guitar leads, but the vocals remain harsh until much later. A twisting, contorting tremolo line is taken over by the guitars as a riff, instigating a guitar solo that initially is accompanied by howls and blasts, but a brief yet effective cameo of passionate clean vocals takes it to another level, with the song not losing momentum right until its crushing conclusion.
The clean vocals here are brief; they become more of a presence later on, particularly from “To Dust”, where the delivery and tone reminds me of the vocals used by Hippotraktor and Psychonaut. The cleanliness in this song is starkly contrasted by fierce blasting dissonance initially, yet sandwiched between similar technical extremity near the end is a remarkably mellow mid-track groove accompanied by a bluesy guitar solo in a style reminiscent of Ghost Reveries, serving as a good platform for a very effective escalation in intensity and tone. “Between The Waves Of Grief” makes similarly strong use of contrast, as the menacing, bludgeoning opening riffing leads later into some very melodic soloing.
The lead guitar work across the album is a real standout feature, whether it’s solos, motifs or texturing. The title track is a great vehicle for the guitar work, from blasting riffs that (along with several others across the album) bring to mind the likes of Hath and Wake, to rolling grooves, and from tasty guitar arpeggios to incendiary tapping motifs. The guitarwork shines throughout the album, but there’s other especially great moments; I particularly enjoy an awesome combo of semi-dissonant riffing with pyrotechnic soloing midway into closing song “Tempest” that almost takes my mind to the classic era of Sylosis. Along with the guitars, the drumming is also a highlight, with the expected blasts and double bass rolls sitting alongside a bunch of delicious rhythms that always fit the mood ideally.
The style and approach across A Monument To Oblivion remains pretty consistent throughout, but there are occasional shake-ups. Probably the most notable is “The Great Divide”, a track that opens with spoken word and sustains doomy trudging for a solid portion of its runtime; even when it dials up the intensity, it still somehow maintains that doomy core, at least until a mid-song solo that serves as a cue for things to turn more melodic (delivering a similar feel to last year’s similarly impressive Blighted Eye debut). That’s yet another band name dropped; there’s a lot of groups I can think of that share similarities with Centuries Of Decay, but there’s no one obvious point of reference to use, which works in their favour.
There have been other top-tier albums in 2025 (Decline Of The I, Pothamus, Symbiotic Growth and Dormant Ordeal all come to mind), but with all of those records arriving before Easter, it’s been a protracted lull crying out for an elite discovery, and Centuries Of Decay have answered the call with a release that I suspect will compete strongly in my eventual Album Of The Year discussions come January 2026.
Written on 07.08.2025 by
Written on 07.08.2025 by
Hey chief let's talk why not Comments
Comments:
1
Visited by
21 users
 Posts: 68 |
Loading...
|
Hits total: 4712 | This month: 114