An inventive and genre-busting high-quality metal release from a band that never looks back.

In a certain way, Unverkalt is like Messa. This is not because they have a strong female lead singer, and not because they have a similar musical style, although both are steeped in metal music. No, it is because they never rest on their laurels; they find new ways for their creative outlet releasing new music that are steps away from their previous, but they are easily recognizable because of the strong signature-vocals, even if the music, that the vocals are embedded in, finds new ways of fusing styles and thus creating a new genre for themselves; filling a void in the metal realm with their expansive music.

When Unverkalt released their first album called L’Origine Du Monde in 2020, it was very mature and fully formed. It did not have the sense of a debut album, but seemed like an album from a band that had at least a couple of previous releases. It was quite impressive. That was probably because they had been working on it for three years after Dimitra Kalavrezou and Themis Ioannou had formed the band in 2017. Other musicians came and fulfilled their vision. Three years on, they released their sophomore album, A Lump of Death: A Chaos of Dead Lovers, which took a new direction with new themes (70s serial killers and criminals). And now, at the end of their third three-years-cycle they are here with an album that takes their alternative or avantgarde take on metal music further, searching for themes of what we inherit in our blood and culture going back centuries.

Many will scratch their heads, trying to pigeonhole the music into one genre. That is almost impossible because the music on this album, as on the others, is an amalgamation of styles that showcases how the sum is greater than its parts. Here you will find Doom-laden parts, blastbeat-rhythms that will make any Black Metal musician wide-eyed, soaring atmospheric parts of music, intense Death Metal growls, howls, screams, and ethereal, crystal clear, soaring vocals, riffs that shred like Heavy Metal, intricate guitar displays, and low-end bass that provides a throbbing heaviness. And lyrics that dip into the darker abyss of the mind: “As this void is nigh / Revolving around my exhausted mind / Condemned to hide behind the eerie masks / Entrapped by my own lie / I reached for the sky / But never found the way out / Forever lured into decay / In the dark we all lay”.

This verse is from the opener, ”Die Auslöschung”, (“the extinction” in German) which can serve as an overture to the musical journey that is about to begin. The opening of this song is laid-back and is immersed in such cinematic overtones that it feels like a distant relative to Ennio Morricone´s soundtracks. The massive walls move with relaxed vocals and through slow-paced drums. It simmers down further with a higher-pitched guitar and whispering vocals, an enchantment as if conjuring the musical journey to really start. And then an avalanche of massive blastbeats and death growls cascades upon the listener, and far back one can hear another vocal line shifting between screams and harmonies, before a shift when the main, clean female vocals are back and rise above the ever-evolving music below.

Here we are with a new creative feat from Unverkalt that works very well: Harsh vocals to take the heaviness of the music further. On the earlier albums, Kalavrezou has handled all the vocals, with her clear, emotive, and strong vocals. She still does, but now she is joined by guitarist Eli Mavrychev with powerful Death Metal growls as you will hear on the first song and throughout the album. And Kalavrezou also ventures into harsh vocals with screams, howls and whispers as she does on the opening song and, not least on ”I, The Deceit“ where strings and piano open the song with whispers upon scratching sounds before diving into heavy sonics where the vocals shift between harsh and clean. When the music turns into an barrage of heaviness, the familiar vocals of Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ emerge in the massive blasting sound. His style merges perfectly with Unverkalt´s sonics. The music widens out and embraces two vocals before it simmers down to only one guitar strumming with the female lead. It fuses back into fast-paced music with both singers effectively in harmony as the melody advances and turns into blast mode.

There is a lot to delve into on this album, as a listener, you will find new, exciting elements as the album slowly grows on you. For example, in the song ”A Lullaby for the Descent” where the music is heavy and translucent at the same time, with melodies fighting to be heard. It is remarkable how they mix a lot of sounds without it becoming a mess, but a melodic, engaging musical achievement. In ”Ænæ Lith”, there is a timbre of Eastern sonics in the opening and when the voices mix and sing in harmony before it all swells into a crescendo with clean and growling Death Metal vocals, but the strong female lead soars ethereal-like in the massive music.

The album´s closer, ”Maladie de l’Esprit”, has a cinematic opening with wide-spreading guitars upheld by a low-end bass and voices coming from all sides surrounding the lead vocals. The music fuses, and the drums take over, driving the pace forward with Death growls and clean vocals which seem wild and uncontrolled in anger, but soon quiet down with strumming tremolo guitar and secretive whispers with echo effects. The music melts into heavy landscapes, and the Death growls are back, supporting the clean vocals. The end of this musical journey turns into a swelling crescendo with the lead vocals immersed in a swell of dense soundscapes before it all fades away.