UMUR "λόγος" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Canadian death metal act Antediluvian. The album was released through Nuclear War Now! Productions in April 2013. Antediluvian was formed in 2006 and released their debut full-length studio album "Through the Cervix of Hawaah" in 2011.

The debut album featured a filthy, dark, and muddy sounding type of death metal and that style of music is continued but ultimately taken to a whole new extreme on "λόγος". The muddy and noisy sound production makes the music sound like you´re listening to a band playing through a closed door, or in the room next door. The drums are a distant rumbling thunder, and it´s only occasionally you´re able to make out what is being played. The same goes for the guitars. The completely unintelligible growling vocals are also drowned in the mix.

There´s no denying that the album features some charm because of the primitive, occult, and uncomprosing sound, but unfortunately with "λόγος", Antediluvian have crossed the delicate line between being noisy and being noise. As a consequence of the noisy sound production the tracks are not easy to tell apart either and the album ends up sounding like one 34:05 minutes long noisy death metal track.

If there was ever anyone in this world who felt that the output by an act like Portal were too nice, cuddly, and polished (you´d of course have to be insane to think that...), "λόγος" should be right down your filthy and plague infested alley. I personally think they´ve taken this to an unlistenable extreme though and a 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

Wilytank I find that as a connoisseur of metal music I don't listen to a whole lot of stuff that has a feel-good tone to it, and I find that I'd much rather music that conveys the exact opposite feeling. Now I don't mean depressive music per se (not all the time anyway) but rather music that is just downright unnerving. Music that makes me feel like there's something extremely wrong in this plane of existence, that something bad is going to happen to everything on an unfathomable scale, and that there's nothing anybody can do to stop it. Such is the experience with Antediluvian's sophomore release λόγος.

Antediluvian follow a death metal formula similar to that of Mitochondrion, Portal, and Impetuous Ritual. They make this chaotic and dissonant sound that also sounds ancient and esoteric due to the primitive sounding production on this album, and really that's what λόγος is all about. This whole album sounds like the destruction of the universe as inscribed on ancient stone tablets many eons ago, and the uneasiness that accompanies that idea is constant throughout the album.

As such, λόγος is one of those albums that's best listened to from beginning to end. However, each of the songs on here have their own discordant melody to make them memorable even if it's not particularly easy to pick them up on the first listen. Establishing them though gives some well needed landmarks throughout the album to give the listener a sense of progress such as the steady kick drum passages on "Towers of Silence", the crushing opening riff on "Nuclear Crucifixion (Turning the Spear Inwards)", or the pitch bending on "On the Tree of LIfe and Death". The guitars, besides laying down the relentless riffs, also provide some tormented sounding solos on each of the songs to compound the unease. Even the ambiance in between the songs is welcome; I'd almost call them a necessity because they actually provide a lot as the album passes through.

The vocals though are an absolute treat. They're this layered sounding low growl that sounds like the voice of a daemon lord whispering apocalyptic prophecies. That's what they'll sound like as you progress through this 34 minute path towards eschaton. They're dark, unsettling, and sound like they're reciting the lyrics in some D&D styled abyssal language. Even when they're relegated to quieter mumbling during the ambiance between the songs they sound excellent.

I have to give props to one track on this album more than the others though. As this album goes on through the chaos, eventually it reaches the final track "Death Meta" which is easily the cornerstone of the album due to how beautifully it brings the whole experience to a close. It's noticeably slower than the rest of the tracks, but this only makes the experience even more unnerving as the final push towards the end of time is made. It's apparent from the slow to start riff progression coming off of the interlude ambiance at the start to the distorted freestyle ending alongside the prophetic sounding spoken word passage that this track is the best way to end the album as the universe finally collapses.

Listening to λόγος feels like a bit of a trial, but it's an extremely fun trial once you get used to it and it's easily one of the better products of this niche of death metal. Antediluvian definitely have a good thing going for them right now, and after listening to this I just wonder what alternate tale of Armageddon they will tell in the future.

(89/100)

optisailor2002 Finally, after 5 years of releasing nothing but EPs and demos, Canada's Antediluvian releases their debut full length album, Through the Cervix of Hawaah. Last year's compilation album, Watcher's Reign managed to capture my attention with their extremely raw take on black/death metal, leaving me craving for more and anticipating for new material from the band. The release of Through the Cervix of Hawaah then finally feeds my craving from this destructive Canadian band.

Opening track Rephiam Sceptre... sounds almost as if the band has decided to take a different approach to their songwriting, with a lead guitar line that reminds listeners more of Norwegian-styled black metal rather than the Canadian style of bestial black/death metal that the band has been known for thus far, with the track ending with an almost epic guitar line, sounding like what bands like Watain would write instead of a band like Antediluvian. Fortunately though, as ...Through the Cervix of Hawaah begins, this is brutal and extremely bestial black/death metal as we know the band. The change (and personally, the improvement) of the production quality is immediately noticeable and will also make the album more enjoyable throughout, compared to the demo-quality production that previous Antediluvian releases have.

As the album progresses, the similarity to bands such as Portal becomes more and more obvious, with the album sounding like a Portal album with a more bass-heavy production. The heavy and dark atmosphere is also reminiscent of bands such as Vasaeleth and Grave Miasma. The buzzing guitar tone is abrasive, and the vocals of Haasiophis and Nabucodnosor are tortured, and sees them alternating between low, gurgled growls and higher pitched shrieks, increasing the level of insanity in the music. Like on Watcher's Reign as well, the drumming is also one of the charming aspects of the album, with Mars' drumming being one of the things that initially captivated me.

The band on Through the Cervix of Hawaah also experiments with new songwriting styles, with songs like Intuitus Mortuus providing some of the slowest moments of Antediluvian, focussing instead of the dark and haunting atmosphere on the track, on top of the usual faster numbers that are familiar to listeners, providing some variation in the band's music compared to their Canadian counterparts. Things like the inhuman scream on Erect Reflection (Abyss of Organic Matter) causes the listeners skin to crawl as well. The higher level of technicality in the band's music also sets them apart from other similar acts, with songs like Scions of Ha Nachash providing listeners with riffing patterns that are not typical in other similarly raw and primitive acts, though it does take some effort in order to hear these elements beneath the chaos that runs above.

The tightness of the band is obvious on Through the Cervix of Hawaah, and the album also displays a marked growth in the band's abilities in songwriting and as musicians, making this album being one that contains some of the best material that Antediluvian has released so far.

Originally written for http://www.heavymetaltribune.com/

UMUR "Through the Cervix of Hawaah" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian death metal act Antediluvian. The album was released through Profound Lore Records in November 2011.

The music on the album is a muddy, dark and twisted sounding death metal. Old school aestethics are dominant but the music isn´t as such retro. This is an absolutely filthy and ominous style of music. The growling vocals are unintelligible, gutteral and delivered with passion. They suit the rest of the soundscape very well. The tracks feature both very fast blasting sections and very slow doomy ones too. The lyrics are of an occult/dark fantasy nature, which song titles like "Scions of Ha Nachash (Spectre of the Burning Valley)" and "...Through the Cervix of Hawaah" bear witness to. The lyrics add to the picture of a filthy and beastly entity. The Australian weirdos in Portal come to mind, but ultimately Antediluvian have carved their own style of dark and twisted death metal.

The tracks could have featured a few more memorable moments which would have made it easier to tell them apart, but repeated listens do help and reveal more songwriting depth than initial listens might reveal. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved for this filthy, muddy, dark and twisted death metal release.