Hailing from Switzerland, this message was on the band’s Bandcamp page: “Hope is a chimera. It is an illusion that prevents us from embracing an obvious fact however luminous in its inevitability: we will soon be no more. There is no longer any horizon for us, nor any tomorrow. Humanity is inexorably running towards its loss and will precipitate in its wake everything that made the world. No other trajectory is taking shape, or sketching out. There is nothing left to be saved. We will plunge into an abyss of oblivion, into this great twilight rising before us. When facing the certainty of collapse, there is nothing more hideous, more degrading, than hope. It is a lie. It blinds us, it suffocates us. It is a myth to destroy. Only then will we be able to accept the worst in everything, and cherish it. Thus, when the very idea of hope finally disappears, only silence remains.”

The album has eight songs, and “Early Mourning” is first. The opening tones are dreadful, akin to what one might hear following a nuclear winter that lasts for years, and the harsh vocals reflect nothing but pain and anguish. There is no sun, no hope, and no one in sight. “Childhood is a Knife in the Throat” continues the punishing and sorrowful barrage. The weight of the sound is so heavy and thick, you feel nothing but pure pressure on your soul. “The Worst in Everything” is even more overgrown, if that is even possible. Jaws lock onto your throat and do not let go, slowly crushing you to death.

It isn’t until “Extinguished Innocence” that we get a slight reprieve from the chaos and anger. Doom elements come through stronger in this song, and the slower pace allows them to really sink in. The thickness of the band’s sound so far is massive. “Hope is a Cancer” is almost too much to bear. The signals of pain, anguish, terror, and torture are sent straight into the back of your brain, spreading like a sickness. “Constant Void” hears the sickness spreading until it consumes its host and takes over, creating a new life form inside. The weighted riffs grate against you until they cut holes in your flesh. “Under the Nails” has more energy, gained from a massive tornado sucking up everything in its path and growing bolder and bolder.

“No Alleviation, Even in Death” is a near-ten minute closer. The slow pace gives the sound more time to develop, and it grows from an ugly man into a monster with gnashing teeth, razor sharp claws and a horrible guttural scream for a voice. Overall, this album packed in more pain, misery, and woe than any that I have heard this year. The songs build off one another…first a nail in your coffin, followed by another, and another, as you are lowered deeper into the ground, finally pouring concrete on top, to make sure you stay dead.