It’s time for Maze Of Sothoth to move again.
Formed in 2009 in Italy, the band released a first demo in 2011, followed by a split with other Italian bands in 2011. Their debut album was released in 2017 by Everlasting Spew Records, a label that Fabio Marasco (guitar/keyboards, Beheaded), Matteo Moioli (drums), Cristiano Marchesi (vocals/bass, Riexhumation) and Riccardo Rubini (guitar, ex-Brutal Murder) chose again for the release of Extirpated Light.
The Unspeakable, the first track, immediately throws us in the center of this as complex as unbridled hurricane of aggressiveness. Technicality and raw violence mix to crush us, only allowing us a short time to breathe on the slower parts, just like on Eliminate Contamination which follows without delay by adding a dark dissonance to its slower parts and to the heartbreaking leads. The abrasive and massive sound is back on The Revocation Dogma which easily buries us under its roll of double kick and blast while the jerky rhythmic happily stomps us. Blood Tribute allows us a few seconds of calm before wild screams resurface to complete the slow and suffocating riffs, but torpor will not last, and the band will explode with an occult rage again before returning to its abysmal slowness to lead us to Blasphemous Ritual which revives a fast and still very complex sound. The catchy riffs follow one another while letting the musicians show us their skills before the short The Plague reveals its strength without losing a single moment, taking advantage of a very aggressive dynamic. We’ll find some fiery leads on Parallel Evolution, the following composition, which will not spare the musicians either with a rhythmic in the greatest tradition of Technical Death, then the band will slow down again with Sanctae Inqvisitionis, taking the time to place some soaring elements. Clean sound remains oppressive although being quite soft, creating a huge contrast with the most virulent parts, then Scorn Of Flesh will put a final point to the album with impressive and worrying sounds, completed by the band’s usual dark and aggressive basis, which will not slow down.
Maze Of Sothoth‘s awakening is translated into an even more occult and apocalyptic sound than on their first album. Extirpated Light does not aim to spare us, opening a vortex towards an extreme technicality coupled with an unleashed violence from beginning to end.
90/100