Vale of Pnath – Between The Worlds of Life and Death

Vale of Pnath is an interesting band. They are often labeled as technical death metal and show up on tour posters along the likes of Obscura, First Fragment, Psycroptic or Ingested. So you’d expect them to fit neatly into that niche of brutal and technical death metal. But something about their sound reeks ov rot in a slightly different direction. When checking out their previous EP, “Accursed“, I couldn’t help but notice a strong kvlt vibe associated with their sound and atmosphere, and I find it even more prominent on their latest full-length album, “Between The Worlds of Life and Death“, so much so, that I would hesitate on whether I should call it death or black metal. I’m not that familiar with the latter, particularly in its most traditional forms, and it is likely that your average elitist would throw a temper tantrum about the genre specifics of this band, but to the average extreme metal listener, it is certainly blackened and demonic enough to make me want to use words like “kvlt”, “trve” and most importantly, “ov”, (I’m afraid you misspelled the title guys). While blackened death metal is a thing, I’ve rarely seen a band in the tech-death sphere pushing the Satan energy this far, which makes Vale of Pnath a unique and significant voice in this niche.

So what’s the deal with this latest album? Well first of all, there’s no band logo on the artwork and that gives them extra mysteriousness points. It also falls perfectly in line with the vibe of the opener, ‘The Forgotten Path’, a cinematic orchestral piece with sinister tendencies that gradually introduces a dark and epic melodic line which is then transformed into a typical black metal descending chord progression on the opening riff to ‘Silent Prayers’. This track does a great job at portraying everything that this album does right, moving through a plethora of tremolo picking riffs, blast beats and shrieking vocals on the first half, before switching to a headbanger main riff for the second part. It’s equal parts black and death metal, but each genre spills its influences on the sections dominated by the other, just enough to keep the juxtaposition coherent, and the song cohesive. The barrage of blasting on the drums and running nature of the guitar riffs is technical enough to have the nerds satisfied, while the hostile, corrosive sound and evil chord progressions always keep the portals to hell open for those more ritualistically inclined.

Vale of Pnath – Silent Prayers

This striking balance is nailed perfectly on all subsequent tracks and there’s a number of reasons why it works so well. First of all, while the pacing, rhythmic choices and high-precision playing all smell like tech-death, I think there’s something about the melodic choices that always keeps the aforementioned portal to hell opened. Every now and then, the guitars switch to tremolo picking and the drums start blasting to create a very obvious black metal wall of sound but even then, the inserts of transitions and details on the drum parts still keep a focus on the technical side of things. On the flip-side, every time they turn up the nerdy compositional aspects like guitar noodling, sliced djenty riffs or moody drum grooves with heavy cymbal-play, there’s a layer of orchestral samples on the background that constantly reminds you there’s a bit of Satan in the room. At this point, I feel like I must let the reader know, there is no obviously satanic lyrical theme that I could identify, I just enjoy exploiting the cliché to a ridiculous extent.

The lyrical themes appear to make use of religious motifs in an abstract form from time to time, so I struggle to extract the message. According to Metal Archives (to whatever degree they’re reliable) also mentions Lovecraft among lyrical themes. I’m not knowledgeable enough on either of these to comment but I will say, the imagery in the lyrics matches the vibe of the music perfectly, whether the song be more focused albeit abstract internal processes (‘Silent Prayers’, ‘Shadow’), or more overtly devastating and violent (‘Soul Offering’, ‘Beneath Ashen Skies’).

Vale of Pnath – Soul Offering

I must also credit the production. The sound has enough attack and definition to get the energy rolling and to keep all details audible but it’s still organic enough to allow Satan in the room (I’m having so much fun with this). The bass is maybe a bit buried and indistinguishable, though you really notice the depth of its effect on the brief sections when it stops. And the drum sound could maybe use more punch, though I feel like the slightly dry and soulless sound they went for works wonders for the hollow and hostile atmosphere.

The vocal performance is also well executed. Apart from some pronunciation complaints I may have where I feel there could be a bit more articulation, the tone is spot on, both in black metal shrieks and in disgusting tech-death lows to create an equal part monstrous and demonic sound. There’s also occasional layering bringing different tones together that amplifies the sound further.

And lastly, there are some epic guitar solo sections. The technique is certainly there, with a lot of blistering speed on display, but the melodic choices are also brilliant, keeping in check with the evil vibe of the album. The solos are not excessively long, but they last enough to allow for a bit of a journey through pace and various techniques. Sometimes there is also dueling or multiple solo sections per song.

Vale of Pnath – Burning Light

And we’ve made it to the end, or so you’d think at least, if it weren’t for the massive curveball on the closing track, ‘Burning Light’ where for some reason, they decided to throw an electronic beat into the mix. If you’d ask me how that works, I’d say it’s like ketchup on a chocolate ice-cream, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t the best ketchup chocolate ice-cream I’ve ever had, cos somehow it works. The depth and groove of that beat creates a marching energy that boosts the menacing effect and maddening atmosphere, rather than diluting it. And with that, they’ve added ingenuity to an album that was already loaded with strong creativity and performance, and not a lot of flaws. I think this album can work both for tech-nerds as well as more traditional metal listeners, so wherever your taste in extreme metal might be oriented, I strongly encourage you to take a trip “Between The Worlds of Life and Death“.

Track List:

1. The Forgotten Path (02:14)
2. Silent Prayers (04:27)
3. Soul Offering (03:15)
4. Shadow (06:14)
5. Uncertain Tomorrow (05:03)
6. Beneath Ashen Skies (05:37)
7. No Return, No Regret (03:43)
8. Echoes of the Past (01:28)
9. Burning Light (05:47)