Review by Sandre the Giant
Swiss progressive death metallers Dyssebeia are making their debut with ‘Garden of Stillborn Idols’, out next week through Transcending Obscurity, and the press release really hypes this up as a passionate, ambitious and forward thinking record. I liked what I heard with the first single, ‘Mors Tua Vita Mea’, and the album seems to have received little fanfare elsewhere so I decided to dive in and see what is going on.
The first thing you’ll notice about ‘Garden of Stillborn Idols’ is that, despite its obviously blackened exterior coating the heavy riffs, there is a real grasp of space and melodicism as well. It is a surprisingly melodic record, while retaining a lot of heaviness and complexity as well. ‘Retribution’ is almost anthemic as it starts, a soaring melody kicks into a speedy melodeath hit of riffing before you start to get a lot of Black Dahlia Murder influence coming through. Those guys are masters of keeping it heavy while thrusting their At the Gates influences to the fore, and that is something Dyssebeia have learned as well. ‘Sacrificed on the Threshold’ has the most glorious, atmospheric black metal start to it, soaring into the sky with blackened glory before creating one of 2023’s great prog death metal songs. It’s like Dark Tranquillity meets Wolves in the Throne Room; never forgetting its deathly roots while keeping a real sense of vastness about it. ‘Hatch’ takes every facet of Dyssebeia’s sound discovered so far; the melodies, the progressive tendencies, the galloping black metal influence and the Gothenburg core and creates a fearsome yet progressively melodic slab of masterful modern death metal, while ‘Black Swarm’ perfects it a mere song later. ‘Garden of Stillborn Idols’ is a record that grows and evolves throughout, giving you a new little surprise with each track.
If you like your death metal focused on Gothenburg via Bergen, then Dyssebeia have got an album for you. Add a dash or two of Dissection’s blackened fury in there as well, and a hefty dose of progressive songwriting, and you’ll have ‘Garden of Stillborn Idols’. A perfectly balanced record for those of us who enjoy the spacious melodies of progressive death metal but the ferocious edge of blackened death metal. A razor thin balancing act, carried off with ease by Dyssebeia and that makes this a really underappreciated gem of 2023.
https://www.facebook.com/dyssebeiaband
https://dyssebeia.bandcamp.com/album/garden-of-stillborn-idols
https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/
The Killchain 