The fact that Dyssebeia is signed to Transcending Obscurity gave me hope as I pressed play on Garden of Stillborn Idols, as it’s one of those labels where, even if not everything on it is for me, the quality is rarely lacking. And so it proves, with the record projecting an infectious, restless energy right out the gates, that barely slows for 43 breathless minutes. Melodic death metal riffs à la Be’lakor’s Stone’s Reach and Majesties’ Vast Reaches Unclaimed dominate but there’s also a blackened edge to much of Merlin Bogado’s guitar work here (“Apophenia” and “Mors Tua, Vita Mea”). Alexandre Sotirov’s throat-shredding vocals sit somewhere in the no-man’s land between death roars and black rasps, at times reminding me of An Abstract Illusion’s Robert Stenvall, including in some of Sotirov’s delivery, which achieves that rare ear-wormy rhythmic quality (“Moon Bearer”) that Stenvall also manages.
Dyssebeia flirt aggresively with gentle melodies and atmospheric passages (“Sacrificed on the Threshold”) that recall Countless Skies’ Glow or even moments of In Mourning (“Black Swarm”). At other points on Garden of Stillborn Idols, like the first half of “Hatch,” brutality is the order of the day, as buzzing guitars and Duran Bathija’s thudding bass twist around each other, and Sotirov’s vox take on a harsher gurgling quality. Behind the kit, Sam Jakubec relies on a lot more than blasts, his work feeling almost preternatural in places (“Apophenia” and “Funeral Ink”). The ever-shifting patterns and influences woven into the fabric of the album are key to its relentless energy, which at times threatens to overwhelm the listener. This is not an album that I can really listen to while doing anything else, like working. It needs your attention.
While this is an undoubted positive for Dyssebeia, and a real credit to a young band dropping its debut, for me there is also a slight negative hiding there. As I often do with albums I’m reviewing, for my first few spins, I listened while working. I find this lets my brain absorb the contours of a record before I do some focused listens. But I came away with very little impression of Garden of Stillborn Idols. It was almost as if the constantly evolving patterns just slid off my inattentive brain. You could, of course, say that the fault here was mine; the album required my attention and I wasn’t obliging. At the same time, other records will just demand the listener’s ear, almost physically reaching out to grab it. However, once I did deign to give Dyssebeia my undivided attention, there was a huge amount to like. “Moon Bearer” and “Apophenia” are both absolute monsters, with the former’s early-career In Flames vibes, having a good tilt at my song of the year list. While there are a few scattered moments across the album that stand out as missteps (like the almost call-and-response vocals about halfway through “Funeral Ink,” and echoing effects toward the back end of the same track), these are few and far between.
The songwriting across Garden of Stillborn Idols is strong and the guitars sound great, with Bathija’s bass given a pleasingly prominent place in the mix. I am not quite as convinced by the production on the drums, which sounds a tiny bit ‘boxy’ in places, particularly the snare, where a little more depth to that sound would be welcome. But I am really nitpicking at this point. Dyssebeia have delivered a very good debut, brimming with energy and creativity. I think that backing off the progressive experimentation just a tiny bit would allow the album to get its hooks into me a little more. That said, the band has done more than enough to get me excited to see where they go next.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: dyssebeia.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/dyssebeiaband
Releases Worldwide: November 17th, 2023
