“Sir, the Tyrannosaurus’ are too strong. They’ve breached level four!”
“Shit!”
“What do we do!?”
“I…uh…send for The Sorcerer. He’s our only hope now.”
“But, sir, there’s a chance the atmosphere down there could cause a cataclysmic fusion. The Sorcerer could perish, or even worse…”
“Just do it, rat! Either The Sorcerer succeeds or the Tyrannosorceress is born. God help us all.”
And that’s the story of how The Sorcerer was sucked into the body of the tyrannosaurus, forming the mighty and mystical Tyrannosorceress. Regrettably, Shattering Light’s Creation — this five-piece debut release — does not feature dinosaurs or epic space battles of any sort. Tyrannosorceress don’t play dinosaur fronted Opeth covers, either. Instead, Tyrannosorceress — hailing from the modern day Dallas — explore with an enchanting richness the more progressive and loose forms of the blackened-death spectrum. How loose is too loose?
Opener “Haunting Black Infinity” sucks you in and coils you around its enchanting core, though its core is stale and its breath stinks of a meal it ate decades ago. It’s eight minutes of rupturing riffs that groove and stab with a chaotic instability. Occasional moments grab and keep you hooked, but these are few and far between. Only does the expressive ending, laced with solos and melodic hip thrusts, really solidify in the memory. Third track “The Call To Chaos” starts with a similar bludgeoning intensity. It stings, whips, stabs, and generally causes lacerations of a headache inducing depth. Short and sharp bursts of semi-linked riffs create a disorienting and rather chaotic feel. The drums are a constant blob of rage; the vocals are a semi-smoke-like snarl that drifts around in the background, making a negligible impact; and the bass a whimpering companion that fails to penetrate. Slowing down around the 4:30, the song moves into a morbid bluesy groove, allowing subtle ambient noises to merge with the tender reverberations of the guitars. This slower lament is a triumph, but it comes too late in the song.
These steadier moments exude a somber quality, sounding somewhat like multi-dimensional smoke drifting from the body of a deceased sorcerer. “In The Light of the Sabbat Moon” opens as a lament, with guitars weeping melodic tears and the bass — though subdued — becoming much more expressive. The song builds in heaviness much more organically and for that reason, it succeeds. At the mid-way point, the song is an explosion of embers; electrifying riffs move alongside a power surge of drums at an exciting pace. Ten minutes is too long, though, and the band fills the remaining three minutes with loose noodling that serves little purpose.
The eleven-minute closing track “Senescent and Supreme” enchants with its unpredictable progressions, merging softer moments with spurts of black metal rage. The song is crammed with exciting moments that fuse elements of every genre into one big mixing pot of hate. From the six-minute point onward the black-metal weed blossoms into a many headed flower of extreme metal joy. Sumptuous soloing, glittering licks, crunching grooves, sludge-esque bellows, jazzy drum fills, deep-sea doom riffs, and a general hotchpotch of styles works to wondrous effect. But it’s all too little too late.
The songs are too long. Of the six, four run over seven minutes. Fourth track “Shattering Light’s Creation” is just as chaotic and messy as “Haunting Black Affinity” and “The Call To Chaos,” however, it runs for just under three minutes, meaning the chaos can be consumed with much greater ease. For the most part, though, the album meanders and drifts into the abyss like blind men driving a submarine. The production is muddy verging on stifling, and the grander moments of the album are not able to reach their full majesty because of this. There are some excellent moments littered throughout and Tyrannosorceress have a real sense of “feel” when delving into the subtler parts of songs. Their looser tendencies, such as at the end of the final track, are much more memorable. For a debut album, this is a decent release. Keep an eye on the magical roar of the Tyrannosorceress.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self Release
Websites: tyrannosorceress.com | facebook.com/tyrannosorceress
Releases Worldwide: June 23rd, 2017
