21st December 2023

Review: “Impious Rumination” by Banished Realm

Formed from the ashes of Unravel and Population Control, purveyors of Death Doom Metal Banished Realm may have only existed since the beginning of 2023 but wasted no time in getting into the studio to record their first compositions. The quartet, who hail from Perth in Western Australia entered both Vision Studios and Opaque Studio in April 2023 to record their debut EP “Impious Rumination” with Cameron Murphy, who also mixed and mastered. Adorned by artwork from Sang Ho Moon of Vhan Artworks & Printing the affair was released in the summer and remains a hidden gem…

While on the surface this is only a pair of cuts the EP runs to the better part of sixteen minutes of music with opening cut “Forsaking of the Empyrean” a real magnum opus at nine and a half of those, but then given the style the band have chosen that should be of little wonder. Orchestrations bring the cut to life before being drowned out by the crushing guitars of Leigh Kapor and Shaun Griffiths, the rumbling bass from Jared Thornton helping with the dark, menacing and sinister atmospherics. The first passage feels like being struck over the head by slab of Death Metal concrete, the larynx threatening vocals from Griffiths nothing short of pure evil. Even the artillery shelling drumming of Shaun Borg makes you wonder where the Doom element will come into play because there is little to indicate that is even a thing until the half way mark. That’s when things slow down dramatically without quite coming to a spine juddering halt for a minute of the darkest of atmospheres as if trapped at the bottom of the poison well before erupting into Sludge Metal for finale fit for a King. It’s not so much a style shift as a demonstration of prowess in the dark arts which speaks volumes about the capabilities this quartet of musicians have at their disposal. The transitions are a slick as you could ever want, the tempo shifts graceful and the tone searing. “Anthropophagus Rite” might be a shorter composition but at just over six minutes it’s by no means the lesser of these two conjoined twins. Playing with nuance as they paint the white to grey, Griffiths reaches some hitherto unheard lows during the slower parts as if scraping the resin from the very bowels of hell. A couple of moments of adrenaline soaked speed followed by some staccato riff infestations bring us back to that orchestration, a haunting final note to send a chill down the spine [8/10]

Track Listing