Soulburn – Quantifying Cosmic Doom
Soulburn – Quantifying Cosmic Doom
Testimony Records
Release: 12/06/26
Words – Jon Deaux
Score: 8/10
This is what happens when a band stops looking outward and commits fully to its own abyss.
Some records arrive, and some records arrive with the quiet, terrible authority of something inevitable, something the universe had been assembling in secret while you were distracted by lesser concerns. ‘Quantifying Cosmic Doom’ is such a record. It is Soulburn’s fifth full-length and their finest record, an accomplishment that could have come with a health warning attached, considering what precedes it. It is focused, intense, uninterested in your comfort zones, and utterly unwilling to give you an inch in return. Press play. Get ready for the aftermath.
Quantifying Cosmic Doom. The title of this masterpiece is the result of some soul searching, looking deep inside the black maw of the universe, and deciding that, yes, let’s do some math. And who else but Eric Daniels, guitarist, songwriter, and riff-czar extraordinaire, could have conceived it? With him are Remco Kreft on second guitar, Twan van Geel on bass and vocals, and Marc Verhaar on drums. This Dutch death-metal/doom-black trio has existed under several monikers since 1996, having risen from the ashes of the legendary Asphyx. They haven’t just formed or started a band. They have come to life after the fire had gone out.
Back in 1998, Soulburn delivered their first full-length album, called Feeding on Angels. It was a threat delivered in the highest volume, raw and unapologetic and doom-filled and black. The following three full-length albums (The Suffocating Darkness, Earthless Pagan Spirit, Noa’s D’ark), tightened the screws even further, each arriving with a sense of patience and certainty of a band auditioning for nothing. Until this one came along, it detonated all the previous expectations and rebuilt them into something altogether different. It looks right into your eyes while you try to make sense of it all. I’ve been working on that for several weeks. I am still figuring things out.
The foundation here is colossal and terrifyingly well-built. It is based on the assumption that you know how to handle the death metal onslaught. Then doom kicks in – this time, not the theatrical doom metal, whose main goal is to scare you into buying merchandise. This one has done its homework and comes armed with facts. It knows its stuff and is ready to show you the results of its studies. Black metal completes this picture, bringing in a dose of liturgy, fierce spirituality, and a certain ecstatic element from the depths of the cosmos. This is a devastating combination, as Kreft and Daniels are an unstoppable riff-writing team. Guitarists have much to worry about – their riffs will never sound better than the ones used in this album. Those are patient and fully-realized arrangements, trusting the audience and, thus, acting aggressively towards them. In 2024, this is quite unusual.
Van Geel’s lyrics deal with the end of everything – all of it, the entirety of the cosmic project. He speaks about it with the conviction of somebody who has done the research and found it catastrophic – but he knows how to convey his despair over the whole situation by singing with an impeccable bass player. And Verhaar, inheritor of the drum throne from the founding member Bob Bagchus and subjected to an extremely difficult task of proving his skills, responded by being simply and utterly great. Nothing here is left to chance; nothing is taken care of by half-heartedness. This is four people doing something with a ferocity that is usually absent from contemporary bands and their efforts to reach a larger audience.
These songs are long, not just because no one dared to edit them, or not just because the band members grew fond of their ideas and didn’t want to part with anything, but because every minute counts. This is an actual storytelling here, something like a precious thread running throughout the whole album, through something horrific and frightening. Dynamics change abruptly and decisively, going from the heaviness that literally reconfigures space to the moments of sheer devastation that strike hard and deep. But that skill – and it really is a skill, and an absolutely unique one – takes decades to learn. Most death-metal bands don’t learn this particular lesson at all – or they just give up too quickly. This one, however, has been learning and using it for years now, with a ruthlessness that may seem generous in its own way.
Those decades are reflected in every single arrangement decision – in every bit of patience, in every minute of silence as much as in any piece of music. There is a certain authority here, unattainable through any hype or marketing algorithm – something real and honest and powerful. And that authority is audible from the very first song on this record. If you have been following Soulburn for thirty years, listening to their gigs alongside Unleashed, God Dethroned, Asphyx, touring around with Mork and Sodom (which, in my opinion, is one of the most metal trips you can possibly take) and playing vans at two o’clock in the morning at venues all over the world, you’d understand the depth of their commitment and the level of their talent.
The universe is doomed. Soulburn has done the math, showed their calculations, and delivered one of the greatest albums of this subgenre in years. Put this on – turn off the lights and blast this album at the volume that would definitely annoy your neighbors and probably yourself tomorrow. Because there is no polite way of dealing with it – and I gave up the charade long ago.
One of the finest albums by Soulburn, as well as in general, in this extreme metal subgenre. Which is saying a lot, because I don’t use that phrase very often and definitely don’t mean the bands I am going to leave behind in my judgment. The perfect mix of death metal’s power, doom’s marrow, and black metal’s intensity – the product of thirty years of experience and an absolutely unique riff-writing and songwriting style.
TRACKLIST
- The Braveheart of Nightmares
- Powehi, the Embellished Dark Source of Unending Creation
- A Pyramid Absurd
- An Impious Journey Through the Cathedral’s Mouth
- Stalactites of Molten Flesh
- M87 – What Hopes To Be Born?
- Iconox Spew Black at the Razor’s Edge
- Down Among the Stars
- The Desolationist
- In the Very Time That Will Rot Us
- An Innocuous Swathe of Sky
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Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
