Leviathan
Massive Conspiracy Against All Life

There would be much to discuss about the rise of American Wrest in the depressive/ambient/black metal scene, musically renamed under the moniker Leviathan. His first full-length, that "The Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide" released back in 2003, a 71-minute load of hatred and despair, up to the subsequent and more underrated "Tentacles Of Whorror".

Now we come to the third chapter titled "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life" released by Moribound Records in 2008, and here you find hatred and despair in spades, all the parts of which this platter is composed seem painstakingly crafted and refined by Wrest. There are outbursts with a purely black metal pace (the opening track "Vesture Dripped In The Blood Of Morning") where, as the lengthy tracks progress, sinister and menacing shadows with a damnably ambient cut are interspersed, up to the black asperities of "Merging With Sword, Onto Them" over ten minutes that turn out to be a marathon of hatred towards every form of life crawling on this Earth. "VI-XI-VI" has a riff of clear depressive origin, scrambled by the speed of blast beats and Wrest's cursed voice, then in the finale becoming a whispered and gloomy track.

Returning to the second track, "Merging With Sword, Onto Them" is a piece that starts slow with an introduction that unfolds into contours with an almost doom flavor, with the riffing becoming sinister and decaying up to the double bass drum outburst, here Wrest shakes the listener by alternating ambient and nihilistic black metal parts with a riff that halfway through becomes abrasive and fast with counterpoints of sick and depressive arpeggios in their malicious creep. "Receive The World" is pure acidic black metal across its 7 minutes, the guitar becomes dark and threatening with sudden and damnable riff changes, and it could easily have emerged directly from "Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide" as it is dark and delirious in its oppression, the ending is always dedicated to those sad and solitary arpeggios that send chills down your spine. "Vulgar Ascetism" is a black metal piece in every respect while the concluding "Noisome Ash Crown" (over 12 minutes long) only reiterates the now consolidated formula of the album, depressive and ambient parts constantly alternating with abrasive parts of raw and decadent black metal. Here the ambient part extends further, also becoming an almost tribal piece dictated by the drum tempos and the spiteful declamation of Wrest's voice. I would almost define it as an "atmospheric" track and it is also one of my favorite pieces of the album.

It took five years but this "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life" is the worthy successor of the first chapter, matching it in terms of malignancy and ominous mental journeys. Where from initial parts with an ambient pace and progress, the (black) sky seems to tear apart to reveal all the exasperating fury of Leviathan's music. Listening to his music feels like delving into the deepest, most hidden, and darkest depths the human mind has ever conceived.