The day before my birthday (48th) Switzerland’s Kerberos released their sophomore album entitled Apostle to The Malevolent. The band was founded in 2013, but first in late 2022 the line-up got completed. The band from Winterthur comprises following four musicians; Ai-lan Metzger (vocals), Diego Lanzendörfer (guitars), Félicien Burkard (vocals, guitars & fretless bass) & Nicolas Käser (drums).

This second full-length is a follow-up to their enthusiastically praised 2022 debut, Of Mayhem and Dismay. Easiest way to describe their musical style is to call it a symphonic death metal, but it wouldn’t do justice for the band. Apart from the unusual mix of death- and symphonic metal, this quartet from Switzerland also blends some epic, progressive and extreme metal elements into an unique package of five songs:

Track listing:

1. Praeludium in H Moll

2. Near-Violence Experience

3. Liar Within

4. Alpine Sea

5. Apostle to the Malevolent

With the exception of the short instrumental introduction “Praeludium in H Moll”, all of the remaining songs are lengthy and epic, filled with intricate choir and orchestral arrangements that is mixed with crushing death metal parts and an interesting interplay of clean and harsh male vocals, supplemented by some nice and alluring and engaging female operatic voices. Lyrically, the record is deeply rooted in personal themes, inspired by the baroque era, delving into emotional themes such as mental health and personal trauma. After the short intro track comes a very explosive track called “Near-Violence Experience” (listen below). The band incorporates some hard riffing combined with some cool orchestrations, some very brutal vocals that are melded with some emotional operatic and cinematic male and female vocals. With its innovative influences and shape-shifting tendency, “Near-Violence Experience” is among the most unique offerings on this record. The superfast paced and furious death metal onslaught opens “Liar Within”. At first it’s a bit chaotic and confusing song, but with some breakneck rhythms and riffs, intense and hellish drumming, and intense and threatening atmopshere from start to the end of this song. On following “Alpine Sea“ they make an unexpected shift creating something different. “Alpine Sea“ is a emotional cut with a folk metal vibe use of the theatrical choir (with wonderfully gentle and harmonic vocals), powerful percussion and desolate yet deliciously delivered bass-lines. The epically proportioned title track “Apostle to the Malevolent” closes this album. It clocks at just under ten minutes, but it doesn’t mean that its boring and uninspiring. On a contrary, it’s engaging and varied track – full of surprises.

The whole atmosphere on Apostle to the Malevolent is kind of strikning, dark, bleak, malignant and disturbing, while the cover art accurately reflects the tone and emotions of band’s music.

Despite only being five tracks, Apostle to The Malevolent is considered a sophomore album and represents half an hour of powerful symphonic yet extreme sonic template from the Swiss quartet & contributors. Apostle to The Malevolent will appeal to fans of avantgarde extreme & symphonic metal and acts as Folterkammer, Madder Mortem, Septic Flesh, Symphony X, Rhapsody of Fire, Therion, Meshuggah etc.

Apostle to The Malevolent is available over at bandcamp.