ALBUM REVIEW: Sulphurous – The Black Mouth Of Sepulchre

SULPHUROUS, another lurking entity in the underworld of Danish Death Metal, will unveil their 2nd full length opus via Dark Descent Records, Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Desiccated Production on October 22nd.

Gloomy strings open the album with a daunting and foreboding ambience. This soon gives way to thunderous riffing, still retaining a funereal sound in the leads while the rhythm and drums pummel into a charnel crawl. The melodic edge of the music definitely reminiscent of Finnish Death Metal while the pulverising assault has its own unique aggression that sprawls its monolithic fury forth from the abyss. Convulsing riffs and maliciously vomited vocals give an eldritch display of Lovecraftian horrors in truly astonishing fashion with such a precise delivery from the entire band whose instrumental prowess is hardly a shock when looking at their other works, herein a more sepulchral vein of Death Metal has been opened. Cavernous and gloomy without losing the sawtooth aggression, this album does not take long to showcase a beautifully sparse array of dynamics from those more sombre moments and the biting aggression that is tied with a suiting amount of melody without tainting the sheer and unforgiving heaviness of the music at hand. With occasional orchestral passages to accentuate the intense mood of the album, it feels truly thought-out in ever aspect. Something the cover art should signify. As should the obliterating strength of the production. This is brutal, in a complex and non-derivative manner.

Barrelling into ever-more intense thresholds, this behemoth of Death Metal grows rapidly in intensity with those hugely atmospheric passages giving way to a feral carnage only to reunite in devastating, ecstatic excellence with a much more foreboding break. This pattern is strong in its presence and yet thankfully doesn’t become formulaic, ensuring the volatile nature of the music is kept unpredictable and profane. The vitriolic bludgeoning presence of chaos is stoic from start to end, even in the more melancholy moments of the album. Keeping the spirit of the genre integral in their vision, Sulphurous have their own brand of incantations which worships the old whilst invoking something original too. That balance has always been where newer bands strive to succeed and here I think it is safe to say that they have. Break-neck grooves come out of nowhere to crack the skull and cleave the meat from the bone before descending back into some ossuary of riffing malevolence and blast beats. This may seem enigmatic at moments but then the clarity hits without warning, providing insight into the nightmarish realm in which these sounds dwell. Prepare for 6 songs of truly unforgiving Death Metal of untempered ferocity.

A pulverising spew of charnel energies with more dynamics than one could predict in a relatively short running time. Flowing with ease from 90s gloom to a more modern brutality that is all tied together by magnificent musical abilities, there is no denying this is a crushing spectacle.