Paroxsihzem - Paroxsihzem

As if Canada's bountiful burden of blackened death metal monoliths did not deliver sufficient clangor and cavernous colostomy with their two front running giants Mitochondrion and Antediluvian (not to mention bands with deeper roots like Revenge and Conqueror) was not enough, the nihilistic fog that emerges out of the country-sized tundra continues to epitomize the immensely atmospheric darkness of death metal and diminish whatever futile light remained to kindle the ambiguity by producing megalith after megalith, my latest encounter of this never ending fabrication being Paroxsihzem and their heavyweight bulk of occult blackened death metal. Now signed to Dark Descent Records, the perfect, impious place for them to harbor their bludgeoning strength, the group, like their fellow countrymen loves to produce hollow, reverb-bathed vortexes that flutter through the air we breathe like some suffocating tornado, and with the additional advantages they gain with the chaotic emphasis of murky death/doom immensity, they truly create a force that would puzzle any man in disgust and oblivion.

Comparisons have associated this with the almighty Australian Portal, probably due to the same chaotic textures used in engrossing the cavernous dissonance of the album, but in truth, I tend to find them much more on par with Antediluvian then Portal, because really, the band prefers to exclude technically driven riffs and more competent, convoluted elements, preferring to simply crush in huge resonant waves, and traumatizing death/doom progressions. Incantation would also probably come to mind whenever the brain-tangling mess rises to take a fresh breath of air and morph into much more straightforward lurches, usually thick tremolo passages lead by the commodious cave growls that no doubt reek of Craig Pillard to many. But even with death metal being the essential ingredient here, there is a noticeable black metal mark on certain sections that I cannot help but love. While brief intervals may have a stronger focus on black rather than death from time to time, ''Tsirhcitna'' has a completely overwhelming forlorn infrastructure purely built around the idea condemning the listener with both punishing and pungent atmospheric black metal tremolos and indulgent orgies of chaos that I can only relate, once again, to Antediluvian.

A quick listen may easily mislead a unconcerned listener. ''Paroxsihzem'' had a one-dimensional effect on me when I first have it a spin, but only on further contemplation did its cantankerous start to shine through the simplicity. A few listen to such subjugating experiments like the finalizing ''Aokigahara'' prove that the band still has still plenty of potential that they haven't poured into their cravings on this release, and considering the brilliance of their balance between surgical occult death metal assaults and cthtonic paeans they have a scrofulous formula formulated and their propensity for excelling at discomfiting psychological torment nearly as good as their countrymen and Portal does makes them a shining, or rather shadowing gem. And along with their label-mates Anhedonist, who were outstanding on their early-year debut, Paroxsihzem is easily Dark Descent's most potent weapons. Darkness will never be eschewed.

Highlights:
Nausea
Tsirhcitna
Aokigahara 

Rating: 86,5%