Scarlet Oath – “Where Their Worm Dieth Not”

0 Comments

Scarlet Oath have released their second album featuring a blend of black, gothic, progressive, death, and doom metal combined into the theatrical, providing a unique experience for the listener.

Let me just start with saying this album is like none I’ve reviewed before. Sure, I’ve covered a lot of extreme metal, black, death, goth, progressive, and even doom which I try to avoid, but I’ve never had to switch between all of those genres on one album, let alone try to make those changes within a single song. Granted there are only 4 songs on this 42 minute release, so the songs are long, but still there is a lot going on here. As a final piece of the puzzle, there is an unmistakable theatric element at play which does provide some context for the changes and that can best be seen in the video for the song “Ichabod” which frankly is mesmerizing.

Screams and sounds of suffering open the album providing a dark, foreboding atmosphere and the repeating clean guitar sounds like an intro to a Slayer song, so by now the listener is fully expecting something heavy and “Where Their Worm Dieth Not” does not disappoint. The early verse parts are delivered by a deep, spoken voice until the song picks up pace and heads toward the black metal side of things including the requisite shrieking vocals. Clean female vocals come in and then things quiet down, briefly before the guitars come back and the song shifts to a pounding, marching riff accented by keyboards and then guitars and more gothic clean female vocals. Production on the album is great, allowing all of the various elements and instruments to come through cleanly, highlighting the work of Derek Corzine (Alethian, Whisper from Heaven, Blood Thirsty) at Corzine Studios.

The theatrical elements come through in the beginning of “The Howling” with the random drum patterns/fills and a distant sounding horn being blown as this all builds over time and eventually settles into more of a distinct rhythm highlighted by clean female singing joined by chugging guitars and then a whole lot of other things happen in the song including: some deep growled death/black vocals, keyboards becoming more dominant, black metal shrieking and droning guitars, a near breakdown section, blast beats, a bit of a groove section with a guitar solo, and an ending that has to be experienced. I really am at a loss for how to relay to the reader everything that is going on in these songs.

Scarlet Oath have released an album that is something that really defies description. If you’ve read this far, you can see my struggles. I can describe what is going on in the songs and how the various elements and styles are incorporated, but unless you listen, ideally a few times, you won’t get the full experience of Where Their Worm Dieth Not.

Rating: 8/10

Written by John Jackson

Tracklist
1. Where Their Worm Dieth Not
2. Ichabod
3. The Howling
4. Cursed Earth

Band Members
Mordecai – Drums, all extreme vocals and male clean vocals
Atara – Keyboards, female vocals
Matar – Guitar, Bass

Release Date: Sept. 16th. 2022

Record Label: The Charon Collective

Follow them on Facebook / Spotify / Bandcamp

Video for ‘Ichabod’

Full Album: “Where Their Worm Dieth Not”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

august

0 Comments

You couldn’t accuse August Burns Red of standing around and…