Release Date: November 29th 2024. Record Label: Octopus Rising. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Vita Est Morte Est Vita - Track Listing:
1.Estate
2.Circadian
3.Zoonosis
4.Macadamia
Members
Mike – Guitars
Stuart – Bass
Richard – Drums
Review
Instrumental Doomsters Borehead debut album Vita Est Morte Est Vita sees the band explore the creative groundwork played on their previous EP’s 001 and 002 even further with a heavier Psychedelic tinged sound with flashes of Post-Rock, Stoner Metal and Sludge Metal. The record is quite abstract and superbly heavy with an Industrial and Progressive based movement which comes to life on the excellent opening track of Estate.
The music is quite down-tuned and distorted with an aggressive delivery with Borehead operating with an Experimental approach at times. The band do lean further into the Post-Metal sound on tracks such as Circadian and Zoonosis with a gloomy outlook with how the music is delivered which isn’t surprising with the album’s English title being “Life Is Death And Death Is Life”. This is the type of music that harks back to the classic days of Post-Metal where PELICAN reigned supreme with blackened sounds areas of the Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal subgenres battling for creative supremacy.
The instrumental sounds are epic, sparse with Borehead being in complete control of their own musical destiny. Vita Est Morte Est Vita is haunting and beautifully melodic with strands of subtle Cosmic Metal allowing the record to be quite unforgiving with a dynamic Post-Rock presence. With echoes of eerie Post-Rock becoming quite regular on the later stages of each track which allows Borehead to add classic soundclips and soundbytes which manifests into a whole different level of heaviness for the listener to fully experience.
There maybe a lack of speed and urgency to Borehead’s music but it’s the actual journey that this album takes you upon that’s the real reward. You have more time to soak everything in with Borehad playing a multitude of different styles of Post-Metal with an epic sideline in Doomgaze and haunting Psychedelic Sludgy surroundings which have an air of sublime COSMIC and SONIC exploration to them.
For a debut album, Borehead feel like they’ve been around forever delivering intense and emotionally charged sounds of the highest order. Within the second half of the album you can hear more dominant and abstract moments of Drone/Ambient Metal starting to form which provides a cold and unsettling feeling with added layers of menacing glitch based noises that are chaotic and absolutely breathtaking to fully listen to.
Famed UK Record Producer Wayne Adams is involved with this album as he lends his great recording talents once again by recording, mixing and mastering the album which gives this record another layer of quality. The album is being released by fearless underground record label Argonauta Records imprint Octopus Rising and showcases why they're perhaps one of the best labels in the business of recognising new talent and promoting their great music throughout the entire underground Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal scene.
Vita Est Morte Est Vita is a masterful debut album that will no doubt appeal to fans of PELICAN, UFOMAMMUT, BONGRIPPER and Vinnum Sabbathi. Be prepared for a bruising encounter of first rate COSMIC based Post-Metal grooves that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
WOW. End Of.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Grand Sounds Promotion for the promo.
Vita Est Morte Est Vita will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Octopus Rising / Argonauta Reords from Friday 29th November 2024.
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