Having already released my personal favorite album of 2023 via his work on Venomous Concept’s The Good Ship Lollipop, it’s only right for extreme music legend Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Brujeria, don’t make me type the rest) to put a bow on this year with a surprise release from his prolific Dark Sky Burial project. The dark ambient powerhouse’s eighth full-length album in just under four years, Tantum Religio Potuit Suadere Malorum, roughly translates as “to such heights of evil are men driven by religion” and pushes DSB into some of the darkest and unsettling musical territories that the project has ever traversed.
“It’s been a rough year for me and I am not sure what faith I have,” Embury plainly admits, “but it’s down to me to make it happen with the love of family and friends.”
Step into (and through) the dark.