113th part of the short reviews.
OFFICIUM TRISTE – Hortus Venenum
Year: 2024
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Rating: 7,8 / 10
The seventh album of the ancient band from the Netherlands. The most traditional Death / Doom Metal with an emphasis on beautiful guitar melancholy and a strong, atmospheric sound. There is very little to write about such albums, because everything has been written already, but believe me, this is very good music for fans of SATURNUS, DOOM:VS, MOURNING BELOVETH, late SHAPE OF DESPAIR etc. I advise you to start with the track “Forcefield"!
DESULTORY – Darkness Falls (The Early Years)
Year: 2024
Label: Darkness Shall Rise
Rating: classic
DSR continues to go through the archives of proper old metal and somehow find famous bands whose early recordings had never been reissued before. "Darkness Falls“ contains all three demos by the Swedes DESULTORY - ”From Beyond" (1990), ”Death Unfolds" (1991) and ”Visions" (1992). I hadn't listened to them before, so this was my first experience. The collection shows how DESULTORY has been moving from Thrash/Death Metal to pure Death Metal with classic Swedish sound and a dark otherworldly aura. All three demos were recorded with Tomas Skogsberg at the legendary Sunlight Studio, so they sound simply excellent. Great compilation!
GUTVOID – Breathing Obelisk
Year: 2024
Label: Blood Harvest
Rating: 6,7 / 10
Atmospheric Death Metal about science fiction and Lovecraft is something I always welcome, although most of these bands leave my expectations unfulfilled. It didn't work out with GUTVOID either. The guys wrote very good music, but they didn't work out the sound. The drums are particularly unsuccessful: they are too "live" , which in this style immediately destroys the whole otherworldly feeling. There issues with the other ingredients as well. The album lacks some dirty reverb, depth, and echo effect.
SEPULKHRAL BAPTISM – Sepulkhral Baptism
Year: 2025
Label: Death in Pieces Records
Rating: 7,1 / 10
Black Metal of Death from Mexico that combines muscular belligerence of instrumental parts with bloodthirsty vocals, dark infernal character and the dynamics of cycling. Everything here is like in the best houses, that is, in bands whose names you know. Except for the sound: it hisses, sizzles, and lacks bounciness and precision. Aside from that, the result is pretty good for the first EP. If new TEITANBLOOD is not enough for you, give it a try. The release, by the way, can be downloaded for free on Bandcamp.
CAMOS – Hide from the Light
Year: 2024
Label: Murder Records
Rating: 5,8 / 10
The Brazilians CAMOS call themselves "Obscure Heavy Black Metal". There is nothing really obscure here (I suppose in this case "obscure" is a diplomatic euphemism used by the music press to refer to bands that no one gives a shit about), and it's ”black" probably due to the presence of lyrics about the devil, distorted guitars and a vocalist who cannot/does not want to sing Heavy. It's a pity that this old, experienced and ideologically advanced man decided to squeeze out monotonous croaking sounds, because this album is mostly very decent as Heavy Metal. Just listen to “When Love ends in Blood”! But all these attempts to adjust the parts of instruments to non-traditional vocals spoil it too much.
