When we (Decibel) talk Cascadian metal, it normally means we’re referring to bands from the Pacific Northwest of the United States (Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch, Windham Hell, Alda, Gallowbraid, etc.), but Cascadia extends potentially all the way up to the southern tip of Alaska through British Columbia, which brings us to Vancouver-based brutal-melodic death metal outfit, Dungeon Serpent. The creation of sole mastermind Arawn, Dungeon Serpent found its leathery wings in 2018. Two years later, Arawn released his two-song Promo, with massively labyrinthine track, “Immortal Incubation,” mooring the front-end.
The buzz off of “Immortal Incubation” and cohort “Decay” found Dungeon Serpent in conspiracy with Seattle’s Nameless Grave Records. Together, they’re teaming up to release Arawn’s new album, World of Sorrows. Described as archaic, avant-garde, monstrous, World of Sorrows is a new era of old-school, violent yet melodic death metal. This is like Austria’s long-defunct Miasma teaming up with Sweden’s maybe-active Eucharist for a menacing roll through Demigod’s pre-1992 material.
Says Arawn: “‘Immortal Incubation”s brutal combination of harrowing NYDM and sinister, elegant melodic death metal a la The Red in the Sky Is Ours makes it one of my favorite songs from the record. It runs through a maze of vicious tremolo riffs at lightning speed, and morbid percussion offsets ominous doom-laded sections of bass-heavy devastation. Triumphant and beautiful but also more gloomy than anything else on the album, it falls into a special intersection for me of self-reflection and sheer, unparalleled aggression.”
Decibel is stoked to our very bones to premiere Dungeon Serpent’s full-length-ready track, “Immortal Incubation”. Rest in festering slime… just not Entombed’s festering slime.
** World Of Sorrows will be released digitally and on CD via Nameless Grave Records on July 16th. Find pre-orders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
