The debut demo of American Death-Doom Metallers SERAPHIC ENTOMBMENT was unleashed last year via Unholy Domain Records on tape. It has now been released on CD by Morbid Chapel Records and Rotten Tomb Records thus it seems a fitting time to visit this 2-piece slab of death. Grisly riffs bellow into fruition with a doomy and spectral soundscape as drums slowly pummel beneath the eldritch guitar soundscapes. Crashing cymbals intersperse the sparse and guttural atmospherics with a simplistic yet incredibly effective ambience that is marvellously dark. The haunting and eerie music has a sombre yet foreboding and malignant feel that is claustrophobic and dense with such a murky production that it is easy to become enveloped by the creeping Death Metal. Vocals join and the beat picks up into a ferociously scolding onslaught of barbaric, primitive and totally decimating extremity. Snarling growls aggressively permeate the thick fog of savagely gritty guitars and ear-splitting drums that hit with sledgehammer-like force. This is not weak Death-Doom prettiness, this is hauntingly dark, melancholic and yet fearsome material that will rip any crypts in the listening vicinity open. Across the two tracks we see small progressions between dragging slower sections and pummelling urgency, there is buckets of ambience and subtle nuance while keeping things pretty stripped back for a superbly barbaric listening experience that retains the spectral qualities that make Death-Doom so fantastic. This is 17 minutes of pure, unadulterated filth from the graves. Lurking riffs, beastly drums and estranged vocals will transport you from the living realm into that of the most morbid ghouls as Seraphic Entombment chisel away any sense of hope. A crushing debut demo that certainly deserves attention in the Death Metal underground for those who like things doomy and eerier. On Morbid Chapel Records Poland.
