Metal Underground.com

Like Behemoth and Goatwhore before them, Lvcifyre is spreading their message of evil through the carnage of black metal and the hefty riffs of death metal. Their debut album, “The Calling Depths,” does not skip around its intentions of being loud and dissonant. The band works in a primal rage that includes a trove of blast beats and the raspy barks everyone knows and loves, though they do make things interesting with slower tempos. Nothing on “The Calling Depths” could be labeled “fresh,” but there’s enough punishment doled out to make it worth taking a beating to.

“The Calling Depths” is the work of only two musicians, and like many two-person projects, they make enough impact to seem like the music comes from twice as many musicians. The unbridled brutality helps to support the morbid lyrics. Lvcifyre bows at the feet of Lucifer, and they make sure everybody knows it throughout the eight tracks. It can get a little over-the-top, especially when they chant his name in glee, like teenagers who popped their metal cherry to Mercyful Fate’s “Melissa.”

Take away the shock lyrics, and the focus becomes on this duo’s harrowing death/black sound. Lvcifyre can really go off on a tear, mashing their instruments into a static whirlwind. “Succubi” and “Husk Of Impurity” race by at a speedy click, giving the tremolo-picked riffs and jackhammer double-bass drumming the center stage. There’s always the concern that Lvcifyre is ready to implode under its own intensity, but the band makes sure there’s no chance of that happening. For a debut album, the band has clear intentions in their dominant sonic position.

While this isn’t a band with great depth as songwriters, other than seeing if there’s any other tempos after “blistering,” there are a couple of tracks where atmosphere is juggled with force. Distorted chants signify the beginning of end times on the opening title track, a slow build that is replicated with clean guitars on “Death’s Magnetic Sleep.” The band saves their most masterful work for the finale, “The Great Fall,” as church bells drone out behind an eerie set of riffs set the stage for the coming of darkness over the next six minutes.

“The Calling Fields” is not much of a departure from the usual debauchery that death and black metal bands get into, but it’s a capable starting point for Lvcifyre to work off of. The musicianship is suited for this style of music, as the solos are a screeching mess and the drums are just as insane. There’s something admirable about any band taking from groups like Vader without straight-up copying them, and Lvcifyre is able to make sense out of the dissonance with no filler blocking their way.