Jonathan Steel’s IX Realms Descendant is built on a familiar map, Dante’s nine circles, but it does not lean on that reference as a costume. It uses it as a straight line to walk, from “Overture Chapter I (Limbo)” down through “Lust”, “Gluttony”, “Greed”, “Wrath”, “Heresy”, “Violence”, “Fraud” and finally “Treachery”, and the music follows that descent with a calm that feels heavier than speed.
Released independently on December 30, 2020, this full-length sits at the end of Steel’s most active period, a run that flared through 2019 and 2020. Since then there have been no new records attached to this project, even though he has stayed visible online, posting guitar videos and continuing as a session guitarist.
Stylistically, IX Realms Descendant lives in doom metal first, with death metal grit woven into the vocals and the thicker edges of the riffing. The pacing is the point. The songs move in a slower gear that is not designed for the pit, yet it still hits hard because it keeps its pressure constant, letting the atmosphere thicken. The drums sometimes hint at urgency, like they want to push the music into a faster heartbeat, but the guitars keep pulling everything back into that deliberate march, and the push and pull becomes part of the album’s spell. One of the smartest choices here is how much room the record gives the bass. Redwan N. Shishko is not buried under guitars or treated like a shadow; the bass is allowed to step forward, to command the line, and it changes the whole feel of the album.
After the brief “Limbo” overture, “Lust” works as the real doorway into the album’s language. It makes the record easy to read. The tempo, the weight, the way the vocals sit deep in the mix, it all arrives in one chapter, and from there the descent feels natural. “Gluttony” is where the album really locks in. The chords land with confidence, the direction feels clear, and there’s a constant friction inside the rhythm as the drums lean towards speed without ever stealing control from the slower, surer stride held by the guitars, bass and that visceral voice coming from the bottom of the room. Then the guitar solo arrives and it earns the attention: classic and epic in shape, but with an Eastern identity in the phrasing that gives it character.
Sohail H-j handles lyrics arrangement, vocals and production, and the vocal sits deep and visceral, coming from the bottom of the mix. The record also leaves space for subtle arrangements that feel properly integrated into the slower pacing, with Mohammed A. Aloqab credited for orchestral work and a guest solo, alongside guest solos from Mohammed Younis El Obeidi and Darbi Mustafa. Nabil AL Klibi’s artwork ties the nine-chapter structure together and gives the descent a clear visual frame.
“Treachery” is over in 1:29, landing like a final step. Then the floor drops away and the record is done. And that’s the thing with IX Realms Descendant: it doesn’t try to win you over with a big finale or a clever twist. It just leaves you down there, in the quiet after the fall, and that silence feels like an unfinished story from Tripoli that still deserves a next chapter.
