Band: Faustian
Album: Parable of the Sewer
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Australia
Label: Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings
Released: July 24, 2026
Introduction
Faustian is a blackened death metal project formed by members of the band Werewolves in Melbourne, Australia. The album follows the first EP (which is reported on Metallum as being mistakenly titled an EP and being, in fact, a full-length album) “We Come as Angels”, and expands on its sound.
Parable of the Sewer
Track Listing:
- I Curse You
- Broken Better
- I Want the Ride to Begin Again
- Immaculate
- Cephalophore
- We Do Not Use Names Here
- Tenements (Only the Wicked Walk in Circles)
- The Rot Shall Inherit the Earth
The initial feeling I got from this album with the first track, “I Curse You”, was that it was sort of for fans of a very “riffy” black metal, almost like Gorgoroth, Wormwitch, Taake and such bands, and I’m glad to say there's so much more to this album and the band.
Second track “Broken Better” starts with a sort of dissonant ringing guitar, growls, screams and desperate voices permeating and setting an even darker scene, to then be brought down with a cutting riff that rages through and brings back the aggression, to then double down on it with voices and screams and a wall of sound.
This third track brings things back to the “riffy” black metal, high tempo, but even then, the song goes into some more cavernous, more swampy passages, with voices rather than screams, sounds that circle around you, to then bring it back and pass on the torch to “Immaculate”, which is my favourite of the album; this song walks you through many feelings, to darker soundscapes to then bring you to a section with a choir, heavy drums and guitar, and a high-pitch tremolo riff that create an atmosphere around you.
The song seamlessly transitions into the next, “Cephalophore” (which means “head carrier”, by the way), which once again, delivers aggression, voices and atmospheric passages that trap you, with sections that feel very different from one another, but that blend in so well they feel almost like a ritual, and you’re right in the middle. The trend continues with “We Do Not Use Names Here”, which goes from pure aggression to slower aggression, like even when the tempo goes down, the aggression stays there, which for me is a huge quality. The next track, “Tenements (Only the Wicked Walk in Circles)” to me felt a lot like Mgla, Taake and such; plenty of repetitions marked by drums that felt almost like a metronome - the kind of drumming you follow with your head, heavy, marked, intense.
The last track, “The Rot Shall Inherit the Earth” brings in a slower start, to then pick up with paired tremolo riffs, harmonizing and then delivering us to a song that gets more and more chaotic, to then end with a desperate voice, metal sounds that reverb through, almost as if we're in a damp corridor, hearing someone desperate in the distance.
Conclusion
It’s an album that grew on me. I liked it on the first listen, more on the second and loved it on the third listen. It’s a strong black metal album, with great riffs, drums, the vocals are perfect and more importantly, with some unsettling passages that feel as if you were able to translate the sort of agony one feels watching a horror movie into black metal compositions.
BMZ Rating: 8/10
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