England's De Profundis is one of the fresher rainbow orchids of cosmic death budding from the extreme progressive metal ideology. The band had started their travels as a doom metal project but colored up the genetic code somewhere down the road, morphing into a progressive creature that, at least based on "The Emptiness Within," implements gratuitous amounts of black metal influence and a cluster of progressive landscapes, such as Arran Mcsporran's fretless bass work and off-kilter musical sequences. De Profundis provides close to an hour of perplexing, dynamic bombs which beam from the extreme nexus of De Profundis' blueprint to Cynic-esque alchemy and musical remnants of other philosophers like Death and Akercocke, encapsulating a group that has no problems justifying songs that usually chalk up six minutes or so of running time. "The Emptiness Within" can't be pigeonholed into a specific genre, although what De Profundis does here is technically extreme metal cooked up with progressive elements, hence the elaborate equation resulting in what we in the Genre Discovery Department call "extreme progressive metal." Most of the riffs De Profundis churns out sound like standard black metal fare, throwing in some melodic death kinks and other trades and tricks caressing the dimensions of Death's "Symbolic" album and other similar records. The percussion is, well, extreme; lots of fast, punishing patterns and blast beats. Arran Mcsporran's bass work has a surprisingly integral function within the record, as he can be heard plucking away in odd rhythms throughout the entire journey.
Now that I see myself spelling out how the bulk of the album sounds, I guess it doesn't appear too progressive on paper, but it is, nonchalantly, in fact. The faction frequently throws around extended verses of clean interludes and snazzy instrumental jams, sometimes using keyboards and synthesizers which have varying roles in the comprehensive system. The instrumental "Parallel Existence" coats itself in what seems like a spiritual sibling to Cynic's "Textures" before rampaging into the epic tendrils of De Profundis' blackened processes; it's a wonderful representation of their sound. "Delirium" and "Unbroken (A Morbid Embrace)" showcase just how strong of songwriters the gentlemen of De Profundis are at their most versatile and dexterous.
The vocals are typical growls and shrieks of the extreme metal variety with the occasional clean section, largely rendered obsolete by the sensational collective instrumentation, and I find myself seeing them as they are: just sort of topical and uneventful. Other than the throat skills, "The Emptiness Within" is a technical feat of dazzling musicianship by a band that loves being bold and courageous. However, De Profundis is able to balance out their ambitions with relevant stuffing, never coming off as bloated or inflating song lengths for the sole purpose of appearing intellectual or technical. With "The Emptiness Within," these things come habitually, and that's one of many reasons why De Profundis and their third album bring home the bacon.