Description
Conceived in Nagano City back in 2015, INVICTUS’ original goal was to play death metal with hints of technicality and a strong thrash metal edge, combining the morbid grooves and abhorrent atmospherics of all archaic death metal gods (Death, Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity, Brutality, Mercyless, Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Obituary, early Decapitated, Sadistic Intent, early Cannibal Corpse) and prioritizing the creation of songs crammed with commanding riffs over any other aspect of their putrescent music. While the target remains the same, the band is now exploring a broader spectrum of riff-oriented death metal in order to aggravate the carnage, exuding a more pernicious aural decay and bludgeoning the listener into submission by some of the meatiest and most vitriolic death metal conceivable.
Witness the Japanese band’s second album, Nocturnal Visions. While 2020’s The Catacombs of Fear debut album was no slouch, here do INVICTUS exude a unique feel to their music that is enshrouded in the mystique of the past. Guttural guitars throw forth bolts of arcane malignancy while the drumming pulverizes the corporeal body with percussive blows. Vocally, the band sit in their macabre low-register and ensure everything is tied together gloriously for your listening displeasure with a truly crushing production that’s as organically lethal as it can get.
Notwithstanding their prodigious execution – leaden yet quick, moving anywhere and everywhere with preternatural ease but never sacrificing an ounce of heaviness – INVICTUS display masterful songwriting across these Nocturnal Visions; trace elements of the aforementioned influences might crop up, but they’re minced and mangled to such a degree that the album proudly slots itself among those legends rather than picking at their collective carcass. Authentic as it comes, then, and completed by compelling, era-authentic artwork courtesy of Juanjo Castellano: if you love death metal, true and morbid, then don’t miss out on these Japanese masters of putridity!
