Album Review: Departe - Failure, Subside

11 October 2016 | 3:19 pm | Christopher H James

"There's barely a weak moment on this overpowering debut."

It's hard to imagine a work of such disgusting brutality emerging from pristine Tassie, but here we are.

Departe have fashioned a black metal-based hybrid that subtly incorporates other extreme metal characteristics, such as massive, grey sheets of noise, slower doom-ridden passages and subtle layers of cosmic echo. There's barely a weak moment on this overpowering debut, but special mention must go to Ashes In Bloom and Vessel, tracks of epic scope and dimensions, and the unexpected emotional depths of closer Ruin together with its stomach-ejecting vocals.