Debut album from Copenhagen-based Konvent here, and while you may be expecting some occult rock from that name—I know I was—what you’ll find here is considerably more caustic. The band play a no-frills take on death/doom, one that definitely pays homage to those who have laid down the path of brutality but they also move ahead, although in a stubborn, blinders-on fashion. The title track starts things off with promise, the huge death/doom riffs immediately in effect, the band wasting no time getting to their point, which they will continue to fine-tune through the rest of these songs. 

“The Eye” absolutely crushes it, the band finding that sweet spot between early Paradise Lost and prime Celtic Frost, the main riff just being an absolute monolith of a death/doom beast. And speaking of blinders on, “Trust” just steamrolls ahead with no regard for anything, the riffs huge, almost slightly stoner and uplifting—almost maybe kinda just slightly fun—but the presentation total Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, van Drunen screaming at me on a battlefield in my nightmares. “Bridge” takes things down a notch and finds the band going even lower and slower—this is seriously painful stuff, the band travelling at sluggish speeds that misery dealers like Grief or Noothgrush once called home. And while exhaustion does threaten to settle in after the album’s halfway point, check out the huge, near-rocking “Idle Hands”, Konvent doing everything they do to perfection, bringing the listener into the album’s final third the same way they’ve treated us the rest of the album: dragging us through the trenches by the hair. The melodies in “Ropes Pt. I” are chilling and show that the band has a couple different shades and hues at their disposal, this album just massive and enjoyable, and incredibly good for a debut.