SEPULCRUM – Lamentation Of Immolated Souls
April 28, 2023, a year ago
(Chaos/Canometal/Burning Coffin)
Chile's Sepulcrum lay down some serious old-school death metal/blackthrash here on their debut LP, the awesomely named Lamentation Of Immolated Souls.
The Hetfield-in-Sodom rhythm-riffin' on opener “Orbital Teratoma” rules and sets the blackthrash tone nicely, and the next few songs do their thing and do it well, with blinders on, no shades and hues to be found. It's good but there's not a lot of personality, although I love the way “The Decay” provides a bit of breathing room four tracks in, before launching back into the go-go-go mania of “Legion's Mandate”, which takes some time for the band to stretch out a bit and showcase what their strength is, which is crafting very cool, atmospheric guitar work. The early Sepul-chaos throughout is cool too, just, like I say, with not a lot to hold on to or remember beyond the moments of guitar-god glory.
“Slitting Coagulated Mess”, man, beyond the absurd song title you get this great machine-gun stilted riffing that just rules, although by the time the album's last couple songs kick in, I'm left wishing the band would just give me something a bit more memorable or hooky (although closer “Traumatized By Insanity” actually has an almost-memorable vocal line); they're definitely on to something, and they'll get there with the considerable strengths they have.
An impressive debut, and one we'll look back on once they've really found themselves as an important building block but nothing compared to what came next.
