apanthropy

Desiccation
Legatum Mortuorum
Carbonized Records
To Be Released: May 15th, 2026

Rating: 8/10

“‘Legatum Mortuorum’ is a monster of a record, but it doesn’t play into the tropes. There’s no high-tempo blasting, no shrill vocals, no constant fixation on riff repetition, each song has its own shade, its own color, and the way it moves from start to finish is where it becomes most captivating”

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1 – All Light is Gone
2 – Cursed in Cold Silence
3 – Legatum Mortuorum
4 – The Alchemy of Grief
5 – Ashes unto the Abyss
6 – Lamentations Beyond the Veil
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The amalgamation of genres within the modern wave of extreme metal bands is a fascinating beast to observe. There is a deep respect for the old influences and the old gods, but the rage and power put behind it is something that is current, something hyper-present. There are the directly confrontational, the ethereal and enigmatic, and bands that sonically feel as if they’re hermits of the extreme metal world, living on the fringe like outcasts from their respective genres.

Desiccation feels like a band that is deep in the sonic wilderness. Legatum Mortuorum, the band’s sophomore effort, is a ritualistic incantation of true bleak atmosphere, long-form writing, and flawless sonic fluidity. Released May 15th, 2026, through Carbonized Records, the record explores six tracks at 45 minutes in length, blending dreary black metal to trace elements of doom metal, death metal, and post-metal, the experience is a void journey of grinding riff progressions, masterful composing, and fully formed musical ideas.

This isn’t a band that is desperately trying to sound heavy, they’re not out for validation in that way. Legatum Mortuorum is a monster of a record, but it doesn’t play into the tropes. There’s no high-tempo blasting, no shrill vocals, no constant fixation on riff repetition, each song has its own shade, its own color, and the way it moves from start to finish is where it becomes most captivating. Riffs range from Beherit-levels of primitive lurching and forward movement to more sophisticated bursts of bright soloing. Tremolo progressions move like massive walls of sound, simplistic in structure, but viciously heavy. Drums are tempered down slightly in the mix, giving room to the faint trace of cosmic keyboards peppered throughout the record, and the multiple vocal attacks dramatically deepen the narrative.

‘All Light is Gone’ is a monumental way to open the album. From the ripping tsunami of distortion of the primitive chord progression in the opening phrase and forward, the song morphs and twists into various warped sonic constructs. In certain segments, layered reverb-drenched vocals play out with an almost chant-like quality, with a firm sense of religiosity. Slower, more ‘breakdown’ style sections with deep, dense palm-muted chunk are crushing and their presence in the track just induces a possession on the listener, it’s difficult to sit still while hearing it. The multiple layers of vocals are a hydra of scathing shades, from the ethereal to the painfully desperate, and their presence – which isn’t always a constant thing – is something that genuinely enhances the music, rather than simply just ‘being there.’

With songs being above average in duration, Desiccation took the opportunity to use each second of space, each second of space and nothing more, to create a fully formed musical expression. These are less like songs and more like violent tales. The riff structures as they move from passage to passage, measure to measure, are joined perfectly into one another, there are no gawdy transitions or unnecessary flash, it feels sonically connected, it flows like blood; thick, heavy.

The title track features very primitive movements surrounded by a witch’s dance of fiery lead work, again, a grip or possession on the listener, as it demands a physical reaction from the concise and intelligent voicings and progressions, it’s just one of those things that only a metal fan can appreciate. This is not a band that is afraid to explore the whole spectrum of sound and presence, and most importantly, they do it well. It feels like something that’s worth investing interest in to where the song moves, whereas most music is simply background noise at high volume. There is no structure of circular verses and choruses, but a crawling morass of kinetically flowing phrases, not necessarily building to particular apex and then descending, but more of a sense of constant tension on the listener.

‘The Alchemy of Grief’ perhaps best represents the sound of the record in summary. Everything is legible in the mix. From the bass to the keyboards. One has to consider that the guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, and multiple vocal layers all must coexist with one another in order for it to, essentially, not sound like total shit, there is a balancing act here at work that is something many bands should take note of. There’s a lot of frequencies at work at one time and they’re beautifully separated. The extended section of ethereal vocals is hypnotic, captivating. The execution is restrained, allowing only despair and tension to seep through. The band clearly demonstrates the capacity to perform at higher tempos or more structurally complicated riffs, but they stay in an area of bleak lifelessness and doom-tinged purgatory, like being swallowed by the darkness of the deep sea. The narrative is the most important aspect, it’s less about ‘writing songs,’ and more about putting together a cohesive idea, with an actual beginning and an actual end, filled with vile but vibrant substance.

The closing track, ‘Lamentations Beyond the Veil’ is a monstrous 11-minute epic of glacial and abyssal doom violently twisted with primitive bone-wielding death. The portal is fully open at this point in the record. Chugging sections paired with atmospheric keyboards equate to a powerful and heavy display of sound. Dreary lead work animates for contrast. Towards the termination of the track, the song takes on an almost angelic quality, like one committing suicide in heaven. It dies a slow death of synth and keyboard, slowly diminishing with each passing measure until it dies off.

Again, Legatum Mortuorum feels hermit-like, distant from many bands, but close to many genres. Something that plays with substance, a heavy weight of emotion, gravity towards each movement and transition. The impact would be lessened had the band tried to add more to the record, the album is simply packed full of dense tonality to a point of auditorial suffocation. It’s depressing in some senses, but not fatalistic, more of an agitated state of spirit-breaking tension, the framing of the outburst when one simply has had enough with the pathetic affairs of the physical world.

Label: Carbonized Records
Band: Desiccation

AJK