I have to admit that the cover art adorning this EP caught my eye, its disturbing imagery made me think about those petrified statues of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. The way those people were caught in a moment of time is both striking and disturbing and the cover art just made me think about that. This Italian bunch released another EP titled ‘Dogma’ in 2019 and all the tracks on that EP have been added to the end of this making it like a full length.
The EP begins with a fade-in of chant voices on ‘Whispers of Saprophagy’ linked to the buzz saw guitar meandering around before the drums kick in with a catchy beat. The addition of guitar hooks may make this release sound within the melodic death metal genre but overall it has an old school deathly thuggery about it primarily due to the guitar tone adopted. The opener almost listens like a lengthy intro piece because there are no death metal vocals as ‘Macabre Procession’ blends with the opener by shifting the song into guttural assailing mayhem with an absolutely monstrous vocal tone. Fans of Scandinavian death metal filth are sure to like this, the catchy drum work is formidable with colossal impact particularly on the kick drum.
There’ll be plenty saying this is very similar to Dismember and early Entombed but remembering that the Swedeath scene consisted of more than just the so-called big four (with Grave and Unleashed) back in the early 90s Throne Of Flesh do a fine job of exemplifying why that scene has produced so many bands over the years. The addition of cleaner vocals in places isn’t something you’d ordinarily expect but it works to shift emphasis and add variation. ‘Smoking Of My Enemies’ absolutely flattens the listener with a double bass barrage fit to cause a seismic upheaval as the guttural vocal style has some similarities to Nile in tone.
The title track acts as an interlude before ‘Exhumation Of The Ancients’ follows by returning the release to blasting ferocity spliced with that double kick work as the riff breaks are hurled at you like hammers amidst that horror strewn Nilesque vocal tone. Being much quicker the song enters a more vicious styling but when the band decides to deviate the pacing downwards the results are catastrophically effective. The last song on the EP is ‘Jhator’, which blasts in from nowhere and is utterly barbaric, its super aggressive stance has a cacophonic controlled pandemonium as the sporadic blasting has a machine gun styled aura, but not like Suffocation before you think that’s what I mean, it is more to do with the bombarding aura it possesses.
As I said the band’s debut EP is tagged on the end and the four tunes presented are similar in style though I’d say the production and toning are slightly lighter, except the vocals which really are some of the most hideous I’ve heard this year, but in a great way of course. Stand outs on the extra tracks are ’24 Obnoxious Reeks Of Holiness’ and ‘Throne Of Mendacious Heritage’ both of which have a brittle abrasive sound that you heard on demos years back, but deliberately done with great results. I especially liked the grating guitar on the latter that hooks into some very cool deathly groove you can really get your neck muscles going to, if so inclined.
A fine slab of old school death metal sewerage, one for those that appreciate the ugly deformed side of the genre rather than any trickery or clinically perfect productions.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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