Album review: Dawn of Ouroboros – Bioluminescence

Like moths to the flame, or prey drawn to the deadly glow of anglerfish deep on the ocean floor, Dawn Of Ouroboros feel an irresistible compulsion to seek out the glimmer even in the deepest gloom. Blackened death metal doesn’t often accommodate warmth or melody. But there it was, drawing listeners in on beguiling 2023 breakthrough Velvet Incandescence, and here it is again on blistering follow-up Bioluminescence.

The Californian quartet understand a ‘progressive’ approach doesn’t need to mean coldness and rigidity. Keystone guitarist Tony Thomas is a molecular biologist, and his fascination with organic growth and evolution pulsates through each of these eight tracks.

As with the Ouroboros itself – the ancient symbol of the snake eating its own tail – it is hard to know where to begin. The five-minute title-track is as good a distillation as it’s possible to get, dropping listeners straight into a hail of frostbitten riffs, before jackknifing into glassy melodic vocals and ricocheting into a passage of brutish bombast. And that’s just the first 85 seconds.

Crucially, each idea feels properly realised, illuminated in sunny golds, sea blues and blood reds. Nebulae explodes into more technical, blastbeaten territory. But then Slipping Burgundy pulls another bamboozling about-turn: sprawling from a slow, jazzy intro to a full-on symphonic black metal onslaught.

Vocalist Chelsea Murphy is their Weapon X, skipping between vocal styles with staggering dexterity. Poseidon’s Hymn sees snarling menace segue into siren song. The joyous prog maximalism of Duelling Sunsets is topped off with real gnashing rage. Strikingly understated closer Mournful Ambience delivers exactly what it says on the tin, haunting with its filmy fragility.

Ultimately, the complete package is a lot. Too much for casuals. But sonic adventurers with a taste for the outlandish and the unapologetically unruly should follow these fireflies’ light…

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, The Ocean, Opeth

Bioluminescence is out now via Prosthetic