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Sempiternal Deathreign: The spooky gloom
30/05/11 || Khlysty
The Internetz is the most brilliant thing ever invented, since scrotal infusion, blowjobs and, ummm, gin? Dunno fer shure, but it’s surely among those great inventions that evolve humanity towards a higher goal and makes life miserable when it’s lacking. For example, a few weeks back I was following a discussion about the re-formation of Winter and the re-issue of their solitary magnum opus “Into Darkness”, when some guy said something like “yeah, yeah, Winter’s really one of the first purveyors of death/doom, but you guys should listen to Sempiternal Deathreign, if you like this kind of music; these are the guys that did it first”.
Now, as you can easily glean, I was really intrigued: who are these cats with the unwholesome name that someone dares to call as the true forefathers of death/doom and why don’t I knows them? So, I did what was proper: I fucken googled them and found out that a) they’re Dutch, b) they split, like, a long time ago, c) they have only one record, called “The Spooky Gloom”. Not bad. So, I searched for the record, bought it, listened to it and came to the decision that the guy who first spoke about them was pretty accurate about his description of the band’s sound. Not comfuckingpletely, mind you, but pretty close.
Sempiternal Deathreign sounds like a real stone-age death metal band that has a penchant for writing two kinds of songs: primitive, ugly, fast and dirty death metal, interspersed with slower, barely groovy parts and supa-slow grinding numbers, containing all the fun and goodwill of a mass grave, with some faster parts thrown in for good measure. The first kind of songs displays a surprising clarity of songwriting, with well-defined riffs, logically-placed changes in tempo and a supa-brutal vomitous vocal delivery. The second kind can easily be compared with Winter’s might in creating a suffocating, black ambiance. Both kinds work perfectly into creating a record that’s balanced between death metal’s early configurations and doom’s deepest misanthropy and despair.
Of course, this having seen the sickly light of day back in 1989 and –most probably- financed by the band members’ weekly allowance, it has very minimal production values to speak of. The guitars mostly lack death metal’s downtuned roar (the bass adds most of the bottom-end heft to be found here), the drums sound hollow and the vocals are way upfront, leaving the instruments in a background murk. All in all, though, this is a surprisingly effective record, as it perfectly encapsulates early death/doom. It’s ugly, heavy, dark, despairing, sick and twisted and it will ruin your tender flower of a psyche. Which means that it’s a good record to have and to play and replay, until your inner being is totally consumed by the spooky gloom.
- Information
- Released: 1989
- Label: Foundation 2000
- Website: –
- Band
- Victor van Drie: vocals, bass, keyboards
- Frank Faaze: guitar, vocals
- Remo Van Arnhem: drums (session)
- Tracklist
- 01. Creep-o-rama
- 02. Resurrection cemetery
- 03. Devastating empire towards humanity
- 04. Dying day
- 05. Unperceptive life
- 06. The spooky gloom
