Nightfly Based in the UK, though originally from Poland, Lvcifyre have been plying their trade of blackened death metal since 2007, releasing their debut album The Calling Depths in 2012. Their second album released in 2014, Svn Eater showed great promise and likewise the Sacrament EP released in 2019 showing greater growth. With The Broken Seal however the band have come of age and released their strongest collection to date.

The music on The Broken Seal sounds massive while still being darkly atmospheric. Dissonance rules here. Those who like their death metal on the murky side with brooding atonal riffs should find plenty to get their teeth into. If you were to mix in equal portions Morbid Angel, Sulphur Aeon, Immolation and throw in a bit of Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate for good measure you would probably come up with something like this. The raw but powerful production suits the music perfectly contributing greatly to the success of this album. Easier said than done to present each instrument with clarity whilst still maintaining a sound that sounds like it comes from the depths of hell. The years of experience have paid off, the musicianship is top notch as is the songwriting, each track expertly balancing the elements of atmospherics, dynamics and most importantly great riffs. It’s not easy to pick favourites as each song plays its part and integral to the whole, which is how this album is best appreciated with the slower atmospheric sections laying the ground for the next barrage of compelling riffs.

Lvcifyre are technically a duo rather than a band with T Kaos handling all the instrumentation apart from the drums. He also is responsible for the very effective vocals, mainly a guttural growl and the occasional higher scream. Menthor’s drums are integral to the band’s sound and his contribution should not be underestimated as he follows all the twists and turns easily. His inventive and busy playing ranging from blasts to slower syncopated sections, constantly shifting in line with the busy and restless song structures.

If there's any justice in this world this should be the album to break Lvcifyre to the next level. Whilst there was nothing wrong with their earlier work, here the band have realised the promise shown on those releases and made an album that’s up there with the best death metal 2021 has to offer. As we near the end of the year The Broken Seal will feature highly on my album of the year list for sure.

adg211288 Svn Eater (2014) is the second full-length album British death metal act Lvcifyre. For this album the band has added bassist Cvltvs to the line-up, who appeared as a guest musician on their debut album The Calling Depths (2011). The trio has been heavily assisted by vocalist Mark of the Devil from the Polish black metal act Cultes des Ghoules, appearing as a guest in many of the album's nine tracks.

The music on Svn Eater is death metal with a blackened edge. It's more or less a straight forward sounding release in this vein, however instantly comes over as not being as one dimensional as a lot of extreme metal releases can be with an interesting choice for an opening track, the ponderous and doomy Night Seas Sorcery that only bears a resemblance to death metal in a couple of later sections in its 9:19 duration, with most of the vocals black metal orientated and performed by Mark of the Devil. Things turn to more towards the normal sound you'll hear on the album towards the end of the track, then things will properly shift into death metal gear with Calicem Obscurum.

Lvcifyre produce a great death metal sound when they get going, neither under or over polished, allowing it to sound suitably raw without sacrificing anything in the mix, and it's generally fast paced stuff with plenty of great riffs across the songs, especially ones such as In Fornication Waters and Nekuomanteion. Guest vocalist Mark of the Devil still pops up on several songs after his main performance on Night Seas Sorcery, adding black metal growls in pretty much a backing vocals role behind Lvcifyre vocalist T. Kaos' deep death growl. Mark of the Devil's performance adds something a bit different to Lvcifyre's music for the opener but where the more aggressive and full on death metal tracks are concerned comes over as a fifth wheel, neither detracting nor adding anything to the songs.

Svn Eater would be something of a one dimensional album if not for Night Seas Sorcery, a song that suggests they're a band with more ideas than they've really explored on this album but despite that all things consider it's the weakest song to my ears, that's how strong a death metal experience the bulk of the album has been. I'm certainly intrigued by the prospect of what else they might have tucked away to vary their core sound but I came to Svn Eater for a death metal experience, and they did that exactly the way I want a more or less straight up death metal album to sound.

Time Signature Unholy chaos...

Genre: death metal

Taking the path of traditional death metal, Lvcifyre take the best from the death metal scene of the mid 90s and inject a dose of black metal evil and a dose of grindcore chaos into it, and serve it to you on a black plate in ter form of "The Calling Depths".

And with guitars that are at you like a swarm of Africanized killer bees and a deliberate old school sound, "The Calling Depths" should definitely appeal to those who like traditional death metal. Each track is built around a flurry of aggressive and brutal frenzied guitar riffs, and the drums feature numerous fills, high-speed double bass drum work and blastbeat upon blast beat. At times Lvcifyre go in a more thrashy direction, while other elements are more black metal-inspired, but the base sound is at all time good old death metal. Especially the guitar solos have a very retro sound and feel to them (slightly reminiscent of the sound of the guitar solos on Invocator's "Excursion Demise") and come across as raw and chaotic.

The overall impression is one of ordered chaos, and it is obviously very clear that this is exactly the intention of the musicians behind Lvcifyre. Connaisseurs of death metal will immediately recognize that we are in fact dealing with extremely skilled and focused musicians whose mission is to create aggressive, brutal old school death metal along the lines of early Morbid Angel, early Pestilence, early Bolt Thrower, Immolation and so on.

Mission accomplished!

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)