ROTTEN TOMB – The Relief Of Death

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8.0

• Bands:
  ROTTEN TOMB
• Duration: 00:44:45
• Available from: 05/18/2024
• Label:

• Death Division Rituals

Streaming not yet available

Nowadays we tend to immediately feel a certain satisfaction and enjoyment when we receive a new album from a Chilean group. For some time, the death metal scene of the South American country has in fact represented an incredible oasis of creativity and vitality, which successfully imposes itself on the geographical challenges and relative isolation of the country. Despite its remote location, Chile is proving to be a hotbed for high-calibre bands emerging from a pulsating and dynamic underground circuit. This circuit is characterized by fervent collaborative activity, where musicians come together to continuously create new projects and experiment with various musical directions. The ferment that permeates the community can in some ways bring to mind the Scandinavia of the nineties, when the region became a true epicenter for various death and black metal strands, so much so that it managed to make proselytes in the most unthinkable corners of the globe. What Chilean musicians have achieved in recent years demonstrates that talent can thrive even in apparently marginal contexts and translate into a music scene that really has nothing to envy of those of richer and historically important countries for this musical genre.
Yet another piece of this modern saga is now offered to us by the long-awaited return of Rotten Tomb, the quartet protagonist of a remarkable debut album, “Visions of a Dismal Fate”, a couple of years ago. The new “The Relief of Death” clearly takes its cues from the dark death (and doom) instances expressed in that first work, but broadens the discussion towards a more evocative dimension, a direct consequence of the further maturation of the group. At first glance, the album can only be considered one of the most enveloping death-doom works of recent times: an intense interweaving of macabre arias and more brilliant and extroverted harmonies, based on an advanced musical competence which, in a musical panorama where unfortunately the lack of focus on the song often reigns supreme, it automatically loads the music with an honest, real, engaging component.
The band, considered among the most promising on the local scene, certainly brings with it a difficult and powerful sound approach, in line with many contemporary underground productions (Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum, Maveth, etc.). However, what manages to distinguish Rotten Tomb among many groups intent on drinking from the same stylistic sources is their solemn streak, particularly accentuated here, which sometimes recalls the very first works of reality such as Paradise Lost and Amorphis. This combination of solidly structured sounds and careful harmonic resolutions leads the group's sound to pulsate with a nature that is, if not exactly its own, at least recognisable, characterized by a drama, exposed through powerful midtempos and great solo guitar interventions, which is promptly supported by considerable substance.
In short, the driving force of “The Relief of Death” is its ability to go beyond heaviness at any cost, to aim – especially in its second half, with songs like “Let The Death Takes Us” or “Illusions Of A False World” ” – on suspended atmospheres, where the two guitars envelop and intersect between long notes and suggestive climaxes that bring us back to a certain old European school or to niche entities such as the latest Burial Invocation.
With this dense melting pot of influences and nuances, which underlines more than ever the spectrum of their potential, the Chileans reappear on the international scene, consolidating their reputation as a talented band. Their mastery of a style which, however codified, they have been able to make their own, interesting, pulsating with their lively resourcefulness, is clear.