Review 2575 : Shrieking Demons – The Festering Dwellers – English

New signing and debut album for Shrieking Demons.

Founded in 2021 in Italy, the band quickly released their first EP with the support of an American label. Spotted by Transcending Obscurity Records, Gabri (vocals, Cancer Spreading, Gravesite), Giorgio (guitar, Assumption, Bottomless), Valentina (guitar), Nino (bass) and David (drums, Assumption, Bottomless) finally unveil The Festering Dwellers.

An ominous sample introduces Devour My Wicked Soul, before a guitar reinforces the feeling, gradually followed by the rest of the band, including the vocalist once the rhythm is set ablaze. The mix remains deliberately grimy and Old School, allowing the musicians to include heady touches of Doom, as on the heavy passages of Abstract Hallucinating, where the band’s influences, turned towards the American scene, are easily recognizable. A few waves of energy still inhabit the jerky rhythm that leads us to the dissonant Sorrowful Dismal Bliss and its disturbing harmonics, complemented by very raw, catchy riffs. Spontaneous acceleration again with Nefarious, Scorned Deities I Am Devoted to, which draws on its unholy influences to offer frantic riffs that also fit in with piercing leads, then Perennial Dirge adopts an interesting and particularly effective groovy touch. The lively but regular blast allows the musicians to offer heavier sounds, before Garden of the Headless Dead grants us a moment’s respite in the company of hypnotic melodies, which eventually invite a veil of saturation to join them at the end of the track, before Longing for Total Eclipse takes over. The riffs become aggressive again, carrying in their wake the cavernous cries and higher-pitched screams of the vocalist, but the track soon passes the torch to Compromised Brain and its disturbing harmonics, which travel together before exploding. Waves of sound follow one another but never sound the same, finally arriving at the impressive Awakening From Secular Slumber, which crushes us with ease, weaving macabre sounds to go with its steady strikes. The track becomes darker again, before giving way to an almost joyous introduction to Apostasy, Sodomy and Sacrilege, but which quickly becomes suffocating again and doesn’t hesitate to change rhythm to make us shake our heads one last time.

The Festering Dwellers is a true tribute album to the 90s Old School Death/Doom scene, masterfully orchestrated by Shrieking Demons. The band may be young, but they’ve learned from their elders and now walk with them.

90/100

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