Satanath Records - Reviews: SAT360

Reviews: SAT360

Today we want to focus your attention on two new songs from the forthcoming debut album by the Costa Rican black/death metal band Corpus Necromanthum, an album described as a conceptual work that leads us “through the harrowing story of a necromancer and his forced transformation into nothing”.

The first of those songs, “Tar Uritharhain“, has been out in the world for a couple of weeks. Its overture is made of simple ingredients — the reverberation of deep booming drum, with the space between them filled with gasping sounds that might be breaths or may be the wind, and by haunted wailing tones that might or might not be human — but it very effectively creates an unearthly chill.

Having thus set their stage in a supernatural dimension, the band begin to kick the adrenaline into high gear with vicious, head-hooking riffage and neck-snapping beats. From there, things get even more unhinged. The guitars come in attacking swarms, the drums spit bullets at high speed; and monstrously imperious roars rise up from abyssal depths and elevate further into terrorizing screams.

The changes continue. The layered guitars, while relentlessly frenzied, send flames toward the heavens and create an atmosphere of frightening splendor. The drums relentlessly switch gears, and so do the spine-tingling vocals (but they sound even more insane). Melodies of despair and agony flow through the tumult in piercing tones. There’s structure in the songwriting, but the feeling of destructive chaos never really diminishes.

That one song makes a formidable first impression, but it’s powerfully reinforced by the second song — the one we’re now premiering.

“Corpus Tactus” has its own chilling overture, but this time it’s one that includes a melancholy piano melody while the cold winds blow. And when the guitars emerge, they too sound distressed, and eventually create a panorama of emotional desolation that sweeps forward over an electrifying, ever-changing drum performance. The music sounds almost stately, but the vocalist’s unhallowed screams and the piercing frenzies of the lead guitar are wrenching to hear.

This song is even longer than the first one, and the band use the extra time well, creating a harrowing experience that’s epic in scale. There’s immense, groaning weight in the low end, but the guitars create visions of skies on fire, and the vocalist’s wild wails, larynx-ruining shrieks, and malignant growls are frightening in the extreme.

The pulse-punching effect of the drumming can’t be ignored, but the dominant impression of the song is one of vast downfall. Along with the first song, it proves that Corpus Necromanthum are capable of creating dark, immersive atmospherics as well as heart-pounding assaults, all of it augmented by terrific drumwork and utterly possessed vocals. Not for naught do the labels releasing the album recommend it for fans of Dead Congregation, Hate, Bekphegor, Ulcerate, and Hate Eternal.

The name of the album is He … Who Suffers Knowledge, and it will be co-released on April 27th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Sanatorio Records (Costa Rica). It was recorded at Necro Studios (San Jose, Costa Rica), and was mixed and mastered at Opus Magnum Studios (Brussels, Belgium) by Déhà, who also performed on some of the tracks, including the one we’ve just premiered.

It’s available in a limited jewel-box CD edition, as well as digitally.

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2023/04/21/an-ncs-premiere-corpus-necromanthum-corpus-tactus/