Sanctuarium is back.
Formed in 2021, the project created by Necrohelm (guitar, Calderum, Stygian Storm, Trollcave…) evolved into a full band, and this year unveils with Gusi (guitar, Graveyard, Morbid Flesh…), Carlos (vocals, Trollcave), Ferran (bass, Guillotina) and Agus (drums, Altar, Hastio) Melted and Decomposed, its second album, on Me Saco un Ojo Records.
Abhorrent Excruciation In Reprisal begins with an ominous keyboard introduction before the thick morbid rhythm takes over, complemented by cavernous vocal parts. The heavy oppressive sound is agitated by punctual, extremely haunting slowdowns that anchor the band in this Old School approach to Death/Doom, just as on Exultant Dredge Of Nameless Tombs, the following composition, which adopts much the same codes. There’s a melancholy feel to the rhythm, while the vocalist delivers a performance filled with rage, but also more majestic and aggressive passages before an almost soothing pause where the leads express themselves, before resuming to lead us into Phlegmatic Convulsions, which gets off to a relatively calm start. It’s not long before double kick and roars return, but we also have a chaotic solo that comes out of nowhere, bringing its airy harmonics to the final, before Sadistic Cremation of Emaciated Offal reinforces the suffocating sensation with its pachydermic approach. The vocal parts are late in arriving, but they haunt the rhythm, weighing it down in the slower moments, then giving it a crushing touch in the explosion of fury that accompanies us through to The Disembodied Grip of Putrescine Stench, the quintet’s fifth and final creation for this album, which again alternates between ultra-saturated apathetic passages and fiery moments, while also featuring blood-curdling whispers before the introduction sample kicks in again.
Oppressive Death Metal seems to be second nature to Sanctuarium, who offer a greasy, cavernous sound on Melted and Decomposed. Nothing revolutionary, just violence.
85/100