If you’re looking for destruction and chaos that sound like they were factory-made in the depths of hell and rubber-stamped by evil forces themselves, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ll sound like a broken record, but I love death metal that sounds like it is literally trying to destroy you, like it has you in its sights for utter decimation. Anything else just doesn’t measure up.

So today we have “Svn Eater,” the second full-length from Lvcifyre, the English-bred blackened death metal band that drums up such vicious, snarling fires, you’ll practically feel like you have a lung infection when you’re done with their nasty music. Infernal may be a descriptor you see thrown around a lot, but that tag perfectly matches this band that just smothers you in their sound, pummels you with power, and has such intensity that the album might make it feel like a legion of demons dragging you underground, judgment be damned. It’s that heavy, evil sounding, and catastrophic, and if you’re down with bands such as Portal, Impetuous Ritual, Aevangelist, and Paroxsihzem, then Lvcifyre should get your temperature rising to dangerous levels.

The band has been around since 2007, spreading their chaos and madness, offering up an EP “Dying Light ov God” in 2009, then their debut record “The Calling Depths” in 2011, both on Blood Harvest. It’s not a pretty sounding record, you’ll be looking long and hard for any catchy hooks, and much of what you hear on “Svn Eater” grinds at you mercilessly, pounding you with a machine-like intensity and a sound that often doesn’t sound human. It’s too terrifying, too relentless to be anything other than damned souls crying out and suffocating their listeners with the eternal damnation they have found themselves. Think that sounds silly? Listen to the record and see if that isn’t totally accurate.

The band is comprised of vocalist/guitarist T. Kaos (who also played in Hodur and Sons of Serpents), whose vocals are like scorched hisses and shrieks that are deranged and defacing; guitarist Dictator (also of his own project Dictator, as well as Necrosadist and Sepulchral Temple); bassist Cvltus (who played with Devilish Impression and Isolated); and drummer Menthor (also of Enthroned, Necrosadist, Nightbringer, etc.). Collectively, they bring a lot of experience and fury to this project, and together they make a hellish whirlwind of terror that should burn the faces off all those would-be, pretender bands claiming to play death metal.

The record opens with the dark, murky “Night Seas Sorcery,” a nine-minute, excruciating trip through the underworld, with slow-driving black doom (I hear some Deathspell Omega and Funeral Mist as well), a filthy pace, and vocals that force you to feel the pain. Eventually the pace speeds up and the band really starts delivering the punches, with gurgly, fear-inducing vocals and monstrous crushing musically. “Calicem Obscurum” follows with a sweltering heat, damaging drums work that spits rocks, and horrifying vocals that are one of the main highlights of this record. “Liber Lilith” whips open with a swirling wind and crackling that leads into the song breaking apart, and the violence erupting once again with creaky, throaty vocals and overall nastiness. The final moments of the song get particularly unhinged, as vocal and noise shrieks rise up and blacken everything. The title cut ups the ante yet again, with the drums the main attraction of the song, with raw growls and chugging guitars adding dark texture.

“In Fornication Waters” rises out of the title cut, with noise bristling, and growls dumping even more horror in the album, and “Nekuomanteion,” inspired by an area where one can speak to the dead, follows. That cut is full of screams and growling, thunderous mauling, and inhuman noises that is utterly terrifying to behold and might not be the best choice of song to listen to late at night sans lights. You may see shit. “Fyre Made Flesh” changes things up a bit, as it’s thrashy and a little more straightforward than the rest, with strong lead guitar lines and maniacal yells and shrieks. The unsettling closer “The Sinister Calling” runs 7:36 and opens with ghostly transmissions, bizarre chants, and strangeness, before the cut explodes and starts hammering at you. The vocals are just as dark and fire-scorched as ever, as muddy stomping and corrosive noise make up the rest of the assault, that never really lets you catch your breath. This is the first dangerous and truly wicked death platter of 2014. Here’s the bar, everyone else.

Lvcifyre’s brand of death metal is blistering and true, and if more bands would follow the same path these guys do, perhaps the subgenre wouldn’t be so hard to handle much of the time. You’re not going to feel good listening to this record, and you won’t be trading high fives with anyone over sweet riffs. You’ll be bludgeoned, made to bleed, and you’ll pay the price with “Svn Eater,” but you just might come out on the other side stronger and more cognizant of what really comprises a great death metal record.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.lvcifyre.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/store

For more on the label, go here: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/