Back with their fourth album, Buried Realm has always been the one-man act of Josh Dummer. As has been the tradition, The Dormant Darkness may be a solo act, but Dummer continues to grab all of the who’s who of metal for some guest appearances. Rather than listing all of them out in a spectacle, let’s instead just state that the guests are the icing to the cake rather than the main attraction. The melodic death metal fury of Buried Realm continues to be an underground gem, championed by those in the know in the hopes that more will find the act.
Scorching and memorable are the two words that come to mind most rapidly when thinking about The Dormant Darkness. “Bloodline Artifice” comes out of the opening gate at full, blistering speed and does not relent. Soaring, uptempo melodies clash with blast beats in frantic melodeath glory, something that follow-up “Futuristic Hollow Nation” continues to develop. The difference being some gorgeous clean vocals (from guest Christian Älvestam) come through and bring it into epic melodic territory. What’s most impressive is how the galloping pace doesn’t subside, Dummer just finds ways to bring in the melodies to make sure the tracks feel different. “Human Code” has some nice vocal trade-offs between Dummer and Bjorn Strid and some battering ram tempos and guitar heroics, it’s a breathtaking track. “A Futile Endeavor” has some downright playful guitarwork going on, between it’s speed runs and urgent soloing, only slowing down for some nice grooves.
It’s only at the midway point of “Where the Armless Phantoms Glide, Part II” where things shift into more groove and less shreddy territory. Not that there still isn’t an abundance of riffage and power metal soloing, but the tone notably moves from the explosive nature of the songs before it. “Jaws of the Abyss” follows this lead and further takes some of the tempo out to focus on some absolutely stellar melodies, both instrumentally and from Älvestam, who again provides clean and gruff vocals with the full extent of his power. Of course, we have to go out on a guns-blazing note, and the thrashy energy of the title track delivers just that experience. Vicious riffing, soaring orchestration, and labyrinthine melodies all come together in a fittingly thrilling finale.
Buried Realm shows that melodic death metal at a frantic pacing and classic sound can still sound just as exhilarating today as it always has. The Dormant Darkness deserves to be heard on a much wider scale given its sheer adrenaline-pumping tempos and dizzying melodies. Between this and the new Disarmonia Mundi, fans of blistering melodic death metal have had quite the year so far.