‘This is an album that takes you on a journey through pain and adversity and dares to give you the illusion of a distant hope somewhere over the horizon,’ said Scream Blast Repeat of Erdve’s 2021 Savigaila LP. That record ought to have put the Lithuanians on the map, but seldom do you hear their name in post-metal or blackened hardcore circles. That might be due to the sheer number of artists occupying the same space and is no judgement on their importance. For album number three, they’ve dropped the subtle black metal features to concentrate on the extreme alienation that’s easier to express through the language of down-tuned guitars. It’s not a disaster, but you’ll feel like you’re engulfed in one.
The plectrum seems stuck at the first note of ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns N’ Roses as another axe bludgeons its way through the mix like a bulldozer with no brakes in the title-track. You know this’ll be an intense experience when Vaidotas Darulis screams into his microphone and brings all instruments into line behind a Gojira groove. Listen to the motor of the double-kick drums as they pound like Periphery’s Matt Halpern at full velocity. Good luck if you think there’s time to analyse where this fits on the spectrum between post-hardcore, post-metal, and groove metal. Know this: it’s more violent than the North Kivu province of eastern Congo.
So, what’s the big change on this record? The guitar amps have a unique rattle to them that isn’t quite fuzz but is deep enough in range to perform bass duties. On second listen, it might be the bass in distortion mode. Melody is hard to find in this audio marshland, but you can hear clean arpeggios twinkle in mud-stained beauty. Darulis screams the words out of his system as if expelling bleach from his airways. He doesn’t care if the words crack or pop under the volume of his raw shouting technique. You can’t contrive chaos like this without putting your body on the line. ‘Skepsis’ is the definition of urgent music. There’s no time to make sense of it before it sweeps you away, like Atari Teenage Riot reborn as a metallic hardcore band anchored in groove. The vocal delivery in ‘Ydos’ is like a constant fire from the shooting range without ear defenders. Darulis uses that hardcore technique where he could switch from roaring to speaking in the same sentence if needed. The deep penetration of the detuned strings will leave you wondering if you can feel it in your shins.
Epigrama feels like a short forty-two minutes rather than an arduous slog. You’ll approach side B wondering if Edrve will reproduce the quieter piano meditations that haunted their previous album. ‘Trukmė’ has no concern about pausing for a moment of reflection with emotions running so high. There are no spaces to breathe in these arrangements, which makes the consistent 4/4 groove of Valdas Voveraitis even more impressive. Though not essential, we should be grateful that Erdve can consider melody in this tsunami of sound. Imagine English post-hardcore heroes, Indifferent Engine, in the unfamiliar territory of Humanity’s Last Breath.
Panic chords are as common as open-string palm-muting in today’s metal landscape. Erdve are converts to the cause of garrotting the bottom strings of their instruments and leaning into the low frequencies. It allows them to trap you in a permanent anxiety in ‘Svertas’. They want to drag you into their trauma, and you’ll find it hard to resist without aborting the listening mission with an early click of the “stop” button. But why would you do that? The chances are you’re listening to this LP because you believe the maxim: no pain is no fun.Epigrama is not as multi-dimensional as 2021’s Savigaila, but it’s a respectable follow up effort. The best thing you can do is absorb it once, spin it a second time, and then look for the subtleties on the third listen.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 29/05/2026
Record Label: Season of Mist
Standout tracks: Epigrama; Ydos; Trukmė
Suggested Further Listening: Mass Worship – Portal Tombs (2022), Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde (2021), Aeffect – Theory of Mind (2023)