Last fall we had the pleasure of premiering Godless Shrine of Decay, an album-length compilation of music by the Brazilian death metal band Escarnium. Godless Shrine was released by Redefining Darkness Records to pave the way for the band’s new album, which will be released on October 14 by the same label in North America and by Testimony Records in Europe. The name of the new album is Interitus, and today we’re able to bring you a full stream of the album on the eve of its release.
Since the band’s founding in 2008, they’ve released one previous full-length, 2012’s Excruciating Existence, and a handful of shorter offerings. As a retrospective, Godless Shrine of Decay documented the maturation of this band over time into a group of ravagers with a knack for writing and executing songs of soul-plundering savagery and relentless ruthlessness. As evidenced by this new album, they have developed a truly impressive, sure-handed mastery of evil, primal, old school death metal.
A chilling, unearthly ambience shrouds this album like a dense, poisonous fog. The fog lifts — or at least begins to swirl in a cyclonic fury — when Escarnium are operating at full speed, with explosive bursts of double-bass and blasting percussion and a raging furnace of grinding, vibrating riffs, deep bass thrumming, and heartless roaring vocals. These fierce onslaughts are cold and grimly destructive, sometimes vaulting into thrashing gallops and sometimes bludgeoning the listener with hammering grooves.
When the band slow the pace (as they do often), the melodies often assume a frighteningly majestic air, laced with high, searing guitar solos that reverberate with alien menace. They are just as likely to bring down a thick, oppressive mantle of funereal gloom before launching another rampage of implacable savagery.
This is a very impressive offering of well-written and expertly executed death metal that manages to be both chillingly atmospheric and vibrantly pulse-pounding. This is an album that stays strong all the way through and is well worth your time for a complete listen. But if you want to simply test what you’re in for first, I’d recommend “Starvation Death Process” — though you won’t go wrong picking anything else at random.
Interitus was mixed and mastered by John Bart Van Der Wal (Aborted) at Hewwetover Studios in the Netherlands. It features cover art and booklet illustrations by Hugo Silva.
The album will be jointly released on October 14 by Redefining Darkness Records in North America and by Testimony Records in Europe, and it’s available for pre-order via the links below.
NORTH AMERICA
https://redefiningdarknessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/interitus
EUROPE
https://testimonyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/escarnium-interitus
http://testimonyrecords.bigcartel.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/escarnium
https://www.facebook.com/redefiningdarkness/
https://www.facebook.com/testimonyrecords
3 Responses to “AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: ESCARNIUM — “INTERITUS””
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Sick! Been waiting for this one to come out even since y’all posted the first track.
This is pretty Jamming!! Some great Death Metal releases this year!
I never heard this band before–great find, thanks. This is really good death metal, “expertly executed” as you say. This is some of the best death metal so far this year, and almost as good as Sulphur Aeon! One down side is all the news report segments preceding many later songs on the album. I understand that they relate to the songs content, but they do not fit too well for me (the line from Apocalypse Now works though). I want to check out the lyrics for sure. What war zone do those news quotes refer to?