DROFNOSURA from Canada are a strange beast and they're comfortable in their own iridescent, translucent skin. They have taken elements from multiple styles such as sludge, doom, black, and even post metal, finely ground them, and used the material to sculpt a new body entirely. The influences are not as distinct any more but the entity nonetheless is able to shape-shift and display the tendencies of those styles. The movement is whimsical, rhythmic, and elegant and the listener is left enraptured by it all. The music naturally evolves within each of the songs as they progress, and it isn't fatiguing just because it's done in such an intuitive manner. "Ritual of Split Tongues" is an astounding album where multiple influences converge to create music that's at once expansive, stirring, and dissonant, and lingers on in the mind for longer than one would think.

The album has six songs, and “Selection of a Corpse” is first. The opening tones are very weighted, sludgy, and doomy, and the vocals tinged with psychedelica. The riffs present dissonant tones, and the bass is heavy in the background. Harsh vocals and lead breaks make sure the song swims vigorously in the swamp. “Kapala Kriya” eases out of the gate like a serpent slithering through the grass. Slow, clean guitars and trippy vocals carry the early sound. There are also some harsh vocals, and they bring an element of filth to the table, together with the devastating bass guitar thuds. The title track is a 15-minute beast. With a song this long, the band has plenty of time to explore. The early tones are somewhat gentle, and very dark, and you can feel the storm on the horizon. The deluge doesn’t hit until after the halfway mark, and much of the song stays in the shadows.

“ἐγείρω” is a short, four-minute offering, consisting mostly of harrowing tones, done with guitar leads, and other background sounds. “The Well of Seven Heads” outlines the dark and shadowy form of something lurking in the background. The clean vocals bring just a bit of melody with them, while the harsh vocals color the entire landscape black…as black as the deep night. The lengthy “Desounen” is the final offering, and this time, devastating notes of hopelessness come though above all else. You can still hear outright torture in the vocals, but the despondence is dialed up to 11, almost as if you can vividly feel the pain, but just don’t care enough to complain. This was an album that will wear down the listener, even those with a great constitution, to the point where the burden on your back grow so large, it crushes you under its weight.