DEATHLESS LEGACY
Damnatio Aeterna
Scarlet Records

If you are a menace for the macabre or a (blood)sucker for horror, then you will almost certainly want to sink your teeth deep into “Damnatio Aeterna”, the sixth studio album from metal masters of misery DEATHLESS LEGACY.

“Damnatio Aeterna” is a love at first bite album with Steva’s ever to die for husky and dusky vocals being darkly divine throughout and the music just flowing like a freshly opened vein. If gothic horror metal is your passion, then “Damnatio Aeterna” is going to be right up your dimly lit and narrow alleyway as DEATHLESS LEGACY deliver their latest spine-tingling chiller.

Title track “Damnatio Aeterna” is a huge gothic undertaking with choral vocals giving it a grim edgy feel, whilst “Indulgentia Plenaria” builds superbly in intensity like the evil theme of a classic The Omen film.

Dark, ghostly and gloriously ghastly track “Miserere” fits well with the album’s anticlerical theme, as does the ratcheting haunting riff of “Communion” which will chill you to the very core.

On more familiar territory, both the hard rocking “Mother Of God” and the deadly as its namesake “Nightshade” will serve to more than satisfying your need for something a little more traditional, with some sublime finger numbing guitar work that would make Lucifer himself green with envy!

“Spiritus Sanctus Diabolicus” with its terrifying chorus from the crypt and the much softer, almost progressive rock track “Sanctified” are musically poles apart. They fully demonstrate what a wide range of ability DEATHLESS LEGACY really do have and how they can reach deep into your soul from both the light as well as the dark.

There are also a couple of unexpected surprises too, like the excellent “Get On Your Knees” with its retro bluesy feel and the much faster paced and heavier riffed “Oblivion” which takes you exactly where it promises to.

Blood curdling final track “Gehennae” will leave you baying for more as it envelops you in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world where chaos truly reigns supreme, and you are dragged kicking and screaming into the abyss.

With DEATHLESS LEGACY’s trademark sound of goosebump inducing ominous organ playing providing the backdrop to almost everything they do, “Damnatio Aeterna” is both beautifully bleak and a wonderfully woeful experience throughout. Without a doubt, DEATHLESS LEGACY will retain their crown of thorns with “Damnatio Aeterna” and their seat on the demonic throne for a long time to come because this really is gothic horror metal at its very best. If Hell is your idea of Heaven, then “Damnatio Aeterna” is a must have addition to your metal playlist. Worth selling your soul for? You decide! Very highly recommended!

Mark Waight