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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.