Artist: Drowning The Light
Country: Australia
Label: Dark Adversary Productions
Formats: CD
Year: 2025
After having been involved in a few more humanly or earth-bound spirited albums in the ‘Conquer Or Serve’-series, this fourth chapter is a somewhat more otherworldly. In an almost literal form, even. This album evolves around topics Azgorh touched upon already on previous recordings. On the ‘Lurker Of The Void’-EP from 2023 for instance, the Setapophian theme already popped up. But it takes center stage on ‘Conquer Or Serve: Xeparapep’. “Apep” has been referred to as the serpent of chaos, that originally wasn’t a part of the natural world but came into being from cosmic chaos. This fourth album tells the tale about creation and thought, of infinite chaos and the old Gods.
These themes have a recurring character in Azgorh’s creations, so it is not surprising that the music also has a more pronounced recognizability from previously published work. From the five new albums, this fourth is definitely the one that fits best into the tradition of the more recent recordings, with ‘Haunter Of The Deep’ (2023) being somewhat of the starting point. The albums prior that one had a more profound rawness in the guitars and the overall production, something that mellowed out on the later recordings and morphed into something that feels like a definite new musical era for the band.
In fact, ‘Conquer Or Serve IV: Xeperapep’ feels so familiar and alike some of the previously released music I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these compositions date back to some of those earlier sessions. While that consequently means that out of the five new albums, this one has a the least of a distinctive sound, it might also be an album that will appeal to those who loved that recently initiated “third era” of the band.
This all comes down to ‘Conquer Or Serve IV’ sounding less sharp and most importantly less prominently “Black Metal”. While that label still suits the music well for the embedded darkness and shrieking vocals, it also bears a lot of more soothing riffs and melodies. The addition of Strix do add to a sense of accessibility. But “real” Black Metal fans will still find enough leads to enjoy the album, listen to the closing ‘Xeperapep! Now Come Forth Into Being…’ for instance. That track has a somewhat more upbeat tempo and has some tremolo-picking style of guitar playing that will appeal to those who prefer their Black Metal to sound a bit more fierce. Yet, don’t expect anything that sounds really close to the classic 00’s albums or the unparalleled shredding bleakness of ‘From The Abyss’ from 2015. For now, though, those days really do seem long gone.
