"Holistic Death Metal with everything from music, production and album artwork originating from one mind", is how Tommi Grönqvist would describe his solo death metal project. Reading through the artist biography, I was thrilled to see the likes of BOLT THROWER listed as influences. I always admired the dark gritty and subtle atmospheric manner in which the British metal legends described the grotesque nature of war and human suffering. I wonder if DESCRESY can capture that same energy or whether they've carved their own path.

No fancy introductions, the album kicks off with "Rivers of the Nether Realm". That atmospheric death metal vibe is certainly there! Hitting me like a ton of bricks. Definitely shades of BOLT THROWER. Vocally though, this is a bit of a let down so far. The inaudible gutturals are doing nothing for me. A note on the song structure. As much as I admire tempo changes and mixing ideas, I think there's just far too many and these passages haven't had chance to fully mature and progress naturally. Despite a solid opening to the song, I think there's definitely room for improvement. The second of the album "Echo Beyond Time" is much better in the sense that the ideas progress more slowly and naturally, whilst feeling more calculated and less like a mismatch. The guitar lead soars elegantly above the rest of the mix, with a delightful tone. Still, I cannot get past those guttural vocals which take away more from the song than they add. However, when the instruments are left to do their thing like in the latter stages of the song, that really is a thing of beauty. A psychedelic vibe takes over, at least in the intro. That's before the crushing death metal takes over, brutal riff after brutal riff, whether it's bludgeoning slow grooves or straight up thrashened velocity. The vocals are a lot more intermittent in this song and it works, allowing the music to do the talking.

"Staring of the Infinity" is definitely one of the softer and slower songs on the album, with a delicious melodic guitar passage taking it's rightful place as a prominent fixture in the mix. This is a much appreciated shift from the brutality in the previous songs. The sludge fest continues into "Cataclysmic Phenomena". I'm getting some HATE ETERNAL vibes, especially with the sweep picking and other melodic riffs that soar over the rest of the mix. Again, I'm glad that the vocals are only used sparingly. I wish it would stay that way in all honesty. Some of the guitar work in "Necrolevitation" and "Dissolve Through Obscure Worlds" is truly delightful.

Whether it's those doom inspired grooves, or the ungodly sweep picking, this song is the peak of the album for me. Still, those vocals are just, well, not adding anything. Maybe the odd high pitched growl here or there to break things up? Still, the album finishes on a high for me thanks to these two songs. I was expecting an album that drew on old school death metal elements, and that's exactly what I got. With some improvements to what feels like deliberately raw and retrograde production, this could be so much more and a homage to death metal of that era.