Sepolcro - "Amorphous Mass" (Unholy Domain Records/Dismal Fate Records, 2019)

Band: Sepolcro
Title: Amorphous Mass
Genre: Death Metal
Time: 20.18 min
Release Date: 15th May 2019
Rating: 74/100












Service communication:

if you don't still know the existence of it, my ebook about the first wave of black metal called "Nel Segno del Marchio Nero" was released on 24th March 2019. Unfortunately, it is written only in Italian but, surely, into it there aren't the over-rehearsed things à la Lord of Chaos. If you want to buy my ebook, you can order it through the best Italian and International stores like Feltrinelli, IBS, Amazon and Google Books. Thank you in advance!

----------------------------

No bullshits, I think that Sepolcro, since I saw them live one year ago even though I never heard them before, is one of the best Italian death metal bands emerged in these last years! They confirmed again this impression through an outstanding EP recently published on CD via Unholy Domain Records as well on cassette via Dismal Fate Rec, that's the personal label of Hannes, the young (only 22 years old!) but hyper-active singer/drummer of the same Sepolcro! So, I've to say already that "Amorphous Mass", that the Italian agency Anubi Press sent me some time ago, promise plenty of good things to come for a band that, despite their foundation in 2011, is still without a debut album.

But why is so "outstanding" this "Amorphous Mass"? Because, firstly, Sepolcro plays a kind of old-school death metal that I like a lot. In fact, theirs is a heavy, raw and dark death metal, reminding me of old bands like Incantation and Rottrevore but also newer acts like Pestilent Death, and you know how much I adore this style! Secondly, because it's really embraced by an aura of palpable malignity...and I don't think it depends (only) on the mega-classic Lovecraftian themes throughout the EP! And thirdly, because all the 4 songs (+ the intermezzo "An Ancient Summoning") are well structured, showing a lot of nice features.

Among these "nice features", I can mention the use of the double singer, since Hannes and the guitarist Simone spews forth a dangerous plethora of deep growls with some unhuman screams from time to time. The guitarwork, simple and rejecting every sort of solo, contains vague traces of black metal while the guitar has a sound so low and cavernous to be perfect for a bestial black/death metal band...and it isn't a case if Hannes put up recently a band of this kind named Celebrarian! Instead, Nor doesn't show particular features with her bass, even though I must underline that it is well listenable in the mix, so it's ok. And, last but not least, the drumming of Hannes is notable because of blast-beats very very fukken fast (ok, not so fast as the drummer of Horsebastard but it's not far off!), and the nicer thing is that every single beat is given with a remarkable potency, and he balances well the fast tempos with the slower ones, included some doomy sections, as perfectly exemplified by the opener "The Malevolent Mist" (that starts with death bells and malefic winds). And within all this, there is the aforementioned "An Ancient Summoning", an intermezzo full of haunting and alien (in every sense!) vocals, even though I think that it's too long considering its 3 minutes of lenght.

Well well well, with these last words I definitely suggest you to give a try to Sepolcro, that gave birth to an EP that was recorded between November/Dicember 2018 at the Dismal Fate's Crypt by the same Hannes, that also mastered it. Ok, maybe their death metal doesn't contains strong variations while some riffs are practically undecipherable because of a guitar sound effectively too "low and cavernous" at times but all this isn't important since, for sure, it doesn't ruin the quality of this "Amorphous Mass" (that has been released on tape also by Headsplit Records). Now, the important thing is that Sepolcro will finally come back in Rome for a death metal night scheduled on 7th November 2019 with the company of other emerging acts of the calibre of Morbus Grave (from Milan) and Thulsa Doom (from my Rome). With a line-up of this kind, missing is criminal!

Tracklist:

1 - The Malevolent Mist
2 - Sulphurous Eruptions from the Depths
3 - Unnamed Dimension
4 - An Ancient Summoning
5 - Amorphous Mass

Line-up:

Hannes - vocals/drums
Simone - vocals/guitars
Nor - bass

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Sepolcrodeathmetal/
Unholy Domain Records: https://www.facebook.com/UnholyDomainRecs
Dismal Fate Records: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Record-Label/Dismal-Fate-Records-227985647980072/
Headsplit Records: https://www.facebook.com/headsplitrecords/
Anubi Press: https://it-it.facebook.com/AnubiPress/