Averse Sefira - Advent Parallax
Review: Attempting to bridge the world of the visible with that of meaning, Advent Parallax makes good on one of the trademarks of Averse Sefira, which is a Celtic Frost-styled theatrical presentation of concepts manifested in characters, conflict and theme. In this album the smoothest unification of technical death metal and flowing, enigmatic black metal defines the sound this band has been reaching for their whole career, and points at a re-uptake of the ingenuous melodic topography that defined their first full-length, Homecoming's March.
Built in the same style as Battle's Clarion, these songs use more ambitious riffs and more complex rhythms, pushing this band closest to its death metal influences, most notably Immolation and Morbid Angel. Written on a grander scale, these longer songs employ a Slayer-styled circular song structure with discursive variations that move each track partially to conclusion, which each later achieves with a triumphal concluding riff and repetition of initial riffs. Percussion as always is quick-witted and surgical in attack, and more advanced bass technique fills out the sparser parts of these songs.
1. Descension (7:05)
2. Seance in a Warrior's Memory (7:55)
3. Viral Kinesis (7:29)
4. Cognition of Rebirth (6:28) 
5. Serpent Recoil (5:39)
6. A Shower of Idols (6:13)
7. Refractions of an Exploded Singularity (9:03)
8. Vomitorium Angelis (7:28)
As with all Averse Sefira releases, the stunner here is that each track stands on its own and is memorable for its own configuration, but fits into the whole so snugly that it seems nonsensical to listen to separated tracks. The sense of gliding over gently rolling landscapes is still present in the semi-recursive longer melodies, as is the rhythmic savagery of death metal riffs that like connective tissue pull the interludes and gentler moments of each song toward a convergent struggle and resolution. These songs are like figures in dreams or memories just out of full recall yet seem both new and perennially familiar at the same time. In this they triumph through perserverance toward the divine through the profane, presenting a warcry for the rediscovery of black metal's soul.