Metal Reviews

Patroness - Undeceive - Song Review - Sludge Black Metal from Antwerp, Belgium

Today I am writing about a promising sludge black/death metal band, Patroness, from Antwerp, Belgium, with, Undeceive, the second track in their debut studio album, Fatum (2022).

Patroness - Undeceive (Official Audio)

Released on: 2022-03-04

Vintage black / death metal has become my personal favorite metal subgenre over the last ten years and I am pleased to introduce to you a must-know collective from the underground scene of Belgium; Patroness. They immediately caught my full attention with their name, visuals, and style, reminded me of Baroness at first. After listening to their few songs, the collective has ended up in my personal playlists that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Undeceive is one of the significant songs from their latest studio album, Fatum, immediately earned its place in our Monsters of Metal Underground playlist on Spotify. The song opens with a Mastodonish sound, blended with Gojira guitars and Ihsahn vocals, which happen to be my favorites. In my book, the vintage sound design and production was the heart of everything, their producer gave life to a timeless-sounding debut album that you don't see happening very often. Simply fantastic job.

Musically, the song is quite progressive and also groovy, gave me the chills more than once throughout the song. I loved both vocal personalities and performances a lot, this collective simply can have both death and black metal in their musical origins. The vocal mix reminded me of Vegard Sverre Tveitan of Ihsahn and Joe Duplantier of Gojira, who I believe are both incredible vocalists. Adding Mastodon's progressive and sludge metal influences into this specific style was a brilliant idea and Undeceive is the proof of it.

Although Fatum is the debut album of Patroness, obviously they all are experienced and gifted individuals. I haven't heard such quality on a debut album for a long time, both musically and production wise. The album simply sounds bullet proof, exciting to think in which direction their sound might evolve from here in the future.

When I put all these into account, I'd like to say that I had a great time listening to Undeceive. Sludge metal of Mastodon meets Gojira's death metal roots and Ihsahn's darkness, an impressive debut with an established vintage metal sound and world class production. One of my personal favorites, Strongly Recommended Metal! Thanks for reading.