Deathdrift are a dark, post-industrial duo from Germany and their debut album, Liminal Nocturnes, was released at the beginning of March. We have the mysteriously named SH on synths, programming, engineering, sampling and mixing, while DS is the vision, the voice, bass, piano, bones and programming
What a way to start out. “Vein Of God” has creepy whispers, joined by a death nell piano chiming. Like laboured breathing with the growled vocals, it lumbers on without heed, consuming all with divine retribution. The eulogy of “The Grey Heavens” drones and DS’s vocals are sonorous and sluggish, as if the colour is leaching out of everything, while the electronics waver and stab out in the single “Incending Night“. There is a beautiful symmetry between light and dark, as if the scales are being stacked with demons and angels. The low tones can be felt in the core of your chest in “Be Sacrifice“, with the shamanistic drums beats, grinding oppressive ambience and chanting.
A portent of warning, a slow ticking joins with the grandiose blasts of the divine hosts, that could take down the walls of Jericho. This is “Allumfassendes Versinken” or all-encompassing sinking and a lone strummed guitar is the oddity. The vocals go from growled to beautiful in short succession, following the the mania in “Rise (Spirit Of The Depth” as it swirls around, dragging you into its maelstrom. “Come” seems so much lighter in tone and yet it is eerily creepy with the echoing and whispering. There is an intensity like they are raising the dead. Violated piano keys colour the track as they keep the rhythm with the drum machine, until they are given a short reprieve only to be tortured again, an opus of pain for “In Adoration“. The last track is “The Universe As A Halfsleeper’s Opiatic Vision” and for the first minute you start to wonder if there is something wrong with the playback, but slowly the disjointed piano gets louder and louder, a modern ideal of a waking dream, or perhaps nightmare.
This album is a bit of a trip. Industrial meets ambient electronics and tinged with black metal. It delves into the imagery of Heaven, Hell and the planes in between as well as the human psyche, when it comes to loss and wanting to be saved by a force higher than themselves. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that SH and DS have had some classical training of some description. The music is heavily saturated in textures, and with the vocals of DS being rich like plush black velvet, there is a lot to love about Liminal Nocturnes by Deathdrift.
Onyx Music Reviews 