Review: “Opulence” by Djinn-Ghül

The night terrors begin with “God Lymph“, a Quake like soundscape creating an atmosphere of oppressive darkness with churning low tuned guitars and rumbling bass. This is however far more than simply an introduction with a single verse from the barbed tongue of Patiño adding a searing intensity to the second half of the cut. He pushes from a Death Metal style unclean all the way up to Slam inspired vocals without so much as pausing for breath, demonstrating his prowess to lethal effect. “Xobek” follows suit with DJent fuelled Death Metal riffs and an artillery shelling of percussive battery wrapped around swirling electronics with Ethnic inspirations. As brutal as it is short and sickeningly sweet, the echoes of early Fear Factory Industrial Metal that were on offer with their critically acclaimed EP “Mechalith” are still very much at the heart of this record. The drum machine hits overdrive with the incendiary blasting on “Ghola“, the vocals from Patiño reaching throat splitting levels as he roars like the demonically possessed. Extremes however push out and add a sense on wonder as the nightmarish electronics that close out the track are ice cold as if stolen from the mind of Wes Craven himself. That serves to cleanse the palate and open the floor for the wall of death inducing title track and the first of four guest appearances with Jordan James of Disentomb lending his throat to “Opulence“. A savage tornado of souls tears through the ear drums, the intertwining vocals finding James and Patiño going toe to toe and pushing each other to gravelly new lows against a bleak soundscape befitting a Stanley Kubrick directed science fiction horror film. “Pseudosapien” finds Alex Marr joining the post apocalyptic hellscape, his shriller tones offering something different to counterbalance Patiño as the cluster bombing from the percussion continues in tasteful fashion. Sinister and menacing there is an undeniable sense of evil lurking in the darkness as slab after concrete slab of music creates a wall of sonic oblivion for the brain to dissect.

Splitting the album clean in half, almost instrumental “Mother” continues to take things in a cinematic direction with disturbing electronics depicting a nightmare from which there is no escape, as if trapped in cage in an augmented reality, where the Kaiju from Pacific Rim rule as Gods. Phelegeton of Wormed joins for “Fruitless Grasp” which rises from the black depths of the instrumental introduction to unleash barrages of riffs and pummelling percussion that approach Slamming Deathcore from the nightside. The intensity of the bludgeoning onslaught is searing before a spoken word orientated final third takes things down an eerie rabbit hole as if segued into a remixed version of the track. A cleverly created disguise, it masks the fact that the finale is another palate cleansing moment, a preparation for the onslaught of the next tune which in theory should help you breathe more easily but in reality sounds like what you’d hear when you’ve been partially digested. Relentless staccato riff breaks batter the ear drums as “Garden of Jaws (It Sees Too Much)” takes hold, the low tunings causing the ground to shake beneath the listers feet. The programming on this one suggests that a break out into some Japanese subculture to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Within Destruction is not beyond the realms of possibility. Buried spoken word moments within the final slab of pure hatred that is “Grave Vessel” give it a haunting sense of disorientation, as if you’re trapped in a coma but can make out those around you. It’s just enough to know words are being spoken but not enough to hear what they actually are, adding another dimension to the riffage and programming as they assault the senses one final time [8/10]

Track Listing

1. God Lymph
2. Xobek
3. Ghola
4. Opulence (ft. Jordan James of Disentomb)
5. Pseudosapien (ft. Alex Marr)
6. Mother (ft. Sara Crow)
7. Fruitless Grasp (ft. Phelegeton of Wormed)
8. Garden of Jaws (It Sees Too Much)
9. Grave Vessel

“Opulence” by Djinn-Ghül is out 14th July 2023 via Vicious Instinct Records with pre-orders available over at bandcamp