Subliritum – Downfall

Today I bring you the recently released third album from Norwegian melodic black metal band, Subliritum; this is “Downfall.” I’m curious what the band name means. Whether it is a made up word, because looking online the only reference I could find, in English or Norwegian, was to this band.

As I was listening to the album and reading about the band I noticed that they hail from Trondheim, one of the few places in Norway that I have actually visited. Trondheim is an incredibly beautiful city and one that I would love to visit again. It recently came to my attention that Trondheim’s impressive Nidaros cathedral is the very place pictured on the album artwork for Mayhem’s classic “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.” It kind of blew my mind that I was there admiring the place and taking pictures and had no idea it was on the cover of one of the greatest black metal albums of all time.

When I started listening to “Downfall” it didn’t take long at all for me to become engaged by this music. You hear about melodic death metal all the time, but it occurred to me I don’t hear the description melodic black metal used all that much. Most black metal bands want to be labelled harsh and cold and frozen, but not melodic. Well, the musical aspect of “Downfall” is very much melodic, bringing to mind Dissection if they’d had the benefit of today’s production equipment.

The vocals are quite harsh in nature, but very well enunciated, so they aren’t really that difficult to make out. The first time I heard the vocals they instantly reminded me of…someone else. I have been wracking my brain listening to this album trying to figure out who this reminds me of, but so far I have failed to place the voice. Oh, I know who it is; this reminds me of Satyr from Satyricon’s “Nemesis Divina” era, only a little clearer sounding. I knew there was a reason I loved this guy’s voice.

The “Downfall” production quality sounds quite good. We aren’t talking slick and over-compressed like say a Trivium production, but certainly quite clear compared to many black metal productions.

I had never heard of these guys prior to this album, so naturally I had no expectations going in, but now I’m quite happy to have stumbled across this band. “Downfall” is definitely an album that I will be returning to frequently in the near future. I highly recommend giving Subliritum a listen. Dissection combined with Satyricon, how could you go wrong? Check out this trailer for the album; it sounds brilliant.