Formed in late 2013 by Thorben Rathje in Germany and Rich Osmond in the United States, Cambion released a demo and EP before Chason Westmoreland joined the duo in 2019.
Throwing itself into the title track “Conflagrate the Celestial Refugium” without a second wasted is Thorben’s lead, but he has little choice as Chason kicks the song off by immediately blasting away at high speed over Thorben’s rhythm and Rich’s bass guitars, with the latter’s vocals growled out at a rate of knots to keep up with the tempo.
The sonic assault is unrelenting, as “Vae Victis” keeps up the brutal pace as the ex-Hate Eternal skin basher continues to kick the hell out of his kit, while the guitars either match the tempo or take things at half-pace to create a bit of a groove for the vocals to roar over.
An awesome thrash riff starts off “Cambion”, before the drums come in at the usual breakneck speed, but this time tempered with some galloping rolls to add a little variation as the vocals head towards lower end growls.
Released as the first single and available to listen to below, “Cities of Brass” opens more gently than the other tracks by giving you 30 seconds of build up before blasting into manic roars over the blistering riffs and blasting drums. Even the leads are played with an intensity that borders on panic.
“Eiton Euclarion” continues with the barrage on the senses as the skin flaying guitar riffs are matched by the rapid-fire drumming over the throaty roars of the bassist.
For the first time, the vocals have a slight black metal inflection to them, but that could also be because the main riff on “Impact Steel” has a very black metal tremolo running through it.
Wrapping up the high-speed component of the album, the penultimate track “Fatalitism” maintains all the fury of the previous tracks and spits it up with a couple mellower bridges allowing for the lead solos to be played at a slightly comprehensible pace, or so it seems when compared to some of the earlier lead breaks.
Easily my favourite track on the album, the instrumental “Obscuratio” ends things off with just shy of 10 minutes of excellence. From the slow opening bass solo to the manic leads during the frenetic drum blasting, it captures all their skills and song writing abilities and merges them together seamlessly, also showing that they can be twice as heavy by reducing the pace a touch.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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