Review: “Cinis” by Consecration

There can be no understating how challenging it can be to find replacement musicians when your band is a going concern but in 2021 it became clear that for Consecration they had finally found that missing piece of the puzzle in guitarist Andy Matthews when they resurrected a trio of long since buried cuts and gave them new life with “Reanimated“. The EP brought down the curtain on a decade of aggression for the band while at the same time providing an insight into what the future might sound like, setting the stage for “Cinis” before the title was even announced… the irony being that as that EP dropped, the album was already complete.

Taken from the Latin meaning “cold ashes“, the album title has numerous associations with death, destruction and ruin, extinguished love and burnt out hate making it the perfectly fit for a band who have explored the depths of melancholy and the graves of the dead shrouded in a cloak of Death and Doom Metal during their career to date. It was recorded and mixed at Blaze Studios during September and October of 2020 before being mastered by Greg Chandler (Esoteric, Officium Triste, Convocation) in the November and December of the same year. Reading between the lines that statement of fact means the album has actually lived with the band for somewhere approaching three years prior it it’s release if you include the writing phase. Adorned by an illustration titled ‘The Rotting and the Earth‘ in charcoal and graphite by vocalist Daniel Bollans this new burnt offering features a guest vocal from Dave Ingram (Benediction, ex-Bolt Thrower) as well as marking the first writings of the aforementioned Matthews.

Slow, drawn out and skull crushingly heavy, the near nine minute magnum opus “The Dweller in the Tumulus” begins the record with a dungeon crawling atmosphere both bleak and yet strangely stirring, in part thanks to guitarists Liam Houseago and Andy Matthews choice of guitar which sounds like it has been taken from the book of Sludge Metal by Kirk Windstein. It’s something of game changer when it comes to Doom Metal in particular as it gives the bands sound a real edge despite its sombre musings throughout the record, the twist in the tale on this cut coming in the final minute when a whammy bar drop solo sees them transition into something you might find on a demo tape from “Hell Awaits” era Slayer, a pulverising moment of all out Death Metal. “Embrace of Perpetual Mourning” follows similar patterns over the course of 11 tectonic plate rumbling minutes, rising from the dead with acoustic guitars that build the atmosphere before turning on the power, the extended instrumental opening running the duration of a marathon before a couple of tempo changes and some ethereal leads lift tings from the mire. Bollans voice is dark and demonic as his words transcend through the music, ploughing a furrow through your ear drums as he lets his thoughts spill out like a brain haemorrhage but offering no shriller moment within his range, instead sticking to the lowest of the lower end of the register while still allowing the listener to comprehend the message.

While it’s not necessarily a formula and there is a greater dynamic at work within each of the cuts, six of them use those same constructs to forge the backbone of the record, creating a distinctive sound that could be marmite for some of those who would dare listen to it because either you can appreciate that slow burning darkness of atmosphere that is rewarding over time or you can’t. Breaking the mould they have created for themselves into a million tiny pieces by single “The Charnel House“, a shorter, sharper triumph in Blackened Death Metal that condenses what the band do into 218 seconds of sinister churning riffs and searing aggression. The album cries out for another cut like this one but instead we are graced by a pair of instrumentals that run to 70 seconds or so a piece. While they do provide a mournful touch and moment of clarity, the calm before the onslaught of the storm returns, in some ways they feel like leftover moments of music from the recording sessions rather than cuts in their own right and could easily be removed without anyone being any the wiser. That being said, this is still very much a powerful statement piece from the returning Consecration who are rejuvenated as they climb from their coffin [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. The Dweller in the Tumulus
2. Ground to Ashes (A Cremulation) (ft. Dave Ingram of Benediction, ex-Bolt Thrower)
3. Embrace of Perpetual Mourning
4. A Dying Wish
5. These Fleeting Memories
6. The Charnel House
7. A Sentient Haunting
8. Unto the Earth Bethralled
9. In Loving Abandonment

“Cinis” by Consecration is out 17th June 2020 via Redefining Darkness Records and is available over at bandcamp