The package of discs that arrived via Talheim Records just prior to the end of the year have taken us all over the place and now find us in Blumenau, Santa Catarina Brazil. Lacrima Mortis appear to be a fairly new outfit of sinister looking hooded figures, hanging around the graveyards of their region for photoshoots and no doubt scaring unsuspecting members of the public. Apart from this, their debut album, they have just an EP and a split with Omnivoid to their name.
Musically this quintet play what at first appears to be sombre funeral doom but do occasionally think outside the box and somewhat at odds with the genre this has a whole 9 tracks on it over a 48 minute playing time. One thing that is not surprising is the translation from Latin quoting Horace ‘Pulvis et umbra somus’ which informs us ‘we are dust and shadows; happy stuff this is not… The suspect tropes unveil themselves over opener ‘Misere,’ weeping guitars, slow ponderous pace, solemn melody and weathered, rough as bark gurgling vocals from the aptly named Dread. This is bleak and mournful but not without a certain sense of beauty about it. It is neither trying to reinvent what one has heard countless times before from the genre but immediately grips the listener in its numbing caress like the reaper has arrived and life’s weary road is at an end as is the pain and suffering. However, there is a sudden upping of tempo at the halfway mark and the scythe is perhaps dodged in a last second of desperation and lust for life. The music has now moved into solid doom-death territories and over the course of its otherwise weary journey will occasionally keep the listener on their toes in this fashion. ‘The Ruins Of Desolation’ is a place one can gaze and imagine in glory of past civilisation before time took its toll. What is somewhat strange and beguiling about it is just as you are getting acclimatised, what sounds like the trill of a Theremin giving it a haunted feel and taking this graveyard into Ed Wood junior territories, watch out graverobbers from outer space have landed. Then just in case you had dozed off ‘Distress and Decadence’ flies out the traps with a savage salvo of blastbeats before settling down to more dreams of the dead slumbering beneath the soil. It’s obvious by now that the band don’t want their sound to be taken completely for granted.
Other things to keep ears peeled for here are some subtle underpinnings in the way of Gregorian chants from the ‘monks of the abbey of desolation’ as well as spoken narration and additional harsh vocals from Laurent of Mourning Dawn on ‘Imprisoned In Death.’ What really breaks the mould here though is the excellent strident pick up that is ‘Shades Of Destiny’ with its rampant strimming melody and more thrashy chug. It’s a fantastic tune and leaves the listener wanting more of the same, wondering if perhaps this about turn could be the direction that the band could concentrate more on in the future? This one has grown on me (a bit like moss) and hopefully this will be Posthumous by name and not by nature as I look forward to more from these Brazilians in the future.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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