Since forming last year, Toronto’s Apple of Basilisk have built a foundation atop black metal and sludge metal, albeit far removed from the former’s naturalism and the latter’s southern bend. Instead, they are distinctly Torontonian, creating urban and salt-stained metal that’s colored by their hardcore roots. The lines between these components are evident in their music, but the group dances atop them as pivoting to a new genre midtrack is child’s play. As such, it feels rude to glue them to any one sound. Additionally, their diverse genotype is emboldened by Thantifaxath’s Davis Maxwell, who produced, mixed, and mastered their debut EP, His Crowned Skull Raised to the Sun, which you can listen to below before it releases tomorrow.
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His Crowned Skull Raised to the Sun’s third track, “Crowned Sloth,” is a microcosm of Apple of Basilisk’s artistry, beginning as a bruiser, then shifting into Altar of Plagues-like black metal, only to crawl through prolonged and coarse notes. It oscillates tempos on a dime, reflecting hardcore punk’s desire to simply get to the point. This is not to say Apple of Basilisk lack patience. Far from it, as they hunker down into dirges like they are bomb shelters. Even in languid sections, the group remains taut.
This is especially true for vocalist Liam Sibley. Performing with hardcore acts such as Die Hexe toned his voice for maximum punchiness and he uses that to lead the charge on “Jericho’s Trumpet Leads the Symphony of Angels.” He lords over the slow-burning track with spit and bile. That’s merely one of his identities, as he also delivers tortured howls, not dissimilar from screamo, on “Weightless Amongst Perished Stars.” Honestly, it’d be easier to stick a wasp to a corkboard than it would be to pin Sibley, or Apple of Basilisk as a whole, to one lane.
The group comments:
Doomed moments of bliss are dissolved in frenetic blasts. Earthen riffs herald a gaping maw. Loss. Revenge. The dying utterance of a corrupt world.
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His Crowned Skull Raised to the Sun releases this Friday on Bandcamp.
