Denial of Death is a one-man black/death metal project based out of Germany by Glauber Ataide, whose roots are in Brazil. Though the project was only created earlier this year, Ataide has already readied a debut EP titled Unholy Trinity which channels the foreboding atmosphere and harsher riffs of symphonic black metal alongside some more traditional black and death metal attacks. Although the project still has room to further branch out and differentiate itself from some of the more influential acts in black metal, there’s still quite a bit of variety to be found here that showcases plenty of potential.
Solo projects sometimes get a bad rap for being poorly produced and lacking in execution, especially in the various metal sub-genres, but that’s not the case here. A short minute-long intro kicks things off with orchestral instrumentation that has that same haunting and eerie approach that defined a lot of classic melodic and symphonic black metal. From there Ataide explores a broad range of styles in a short period of time, with “Spiritual Oppression” delivering faster blasting with darker keyboard melodies soaring over top of that foundation. This song reminded me of bands like Emperor and Limbonic Art with how prominent the keyboards were alongside the harsher guitar work, which is what I was expecting for the remainder of Unholy Trinity. But Denial of Death switches things up from one song to the next, slowing things down on the title track for an atmosphere that’s closer to older Rotting Christ and other classic Hellenic acts before going for more of a straight-up Norwegian black metal attack on “The Day of Revenge”. Some of the riffs also bring a bit of the slower and methodical variants of death metal in as well, though to my ears there was a lot more black metal. This is bolstered by strong production values that allow the individual instruments to break through the mix, and overall Unholy Trinity showcases more precision and polish than you might expect this early on. Admittedly while the amount of variety is nice some of the songwriting approaches felt just a little too familiar and didn’t fully stand out from the pack, with the first two tracks after the intro providing the most interesting moments.
Ataide’s vocals come in the form of raspier screams that stand slightly above the instrumentation, and they’re well enunciated so that you’re likely to make out the lyrical content pretty easily. Rather than letting this pitch dominate the entire recording, Denial of Death layers their vocals so that they reverberate out of your speakers with a sinister and distorted tone, as though you’re hearing something genuinely inhuman. It’s an approach that works well, and this is bolstered by some guest performances on two of the tracks. “Spiritual Oppression” features Carla Lopes contributing possessed sounding operatic singing, while “Tempus Fugit” finds Geisa offering a similar flurry of haunted choirs. Little details like this go a long way in helping these two pieces to stand out, and even if Denial of Death doesn’t use the same guests in the future I hope they retain some of these elements.
Given that Ataide has put this band together and done everything himself during the pandemic, I appreciate how polished the material is, especially given how quickly it has come together. Though it’s missing a standout riff or passage that really turns my head, everything here captures that same sense of darkness and dread that melodic and symphonic black metal are really good at and that’s made my time listening to it enjoyable. There’s potential here, and if Denial of Death can continue to maintain this same level of variety while tying it together into something that stands out even more overall, this is going to be a project worth watching.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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