As November slips into Mariah Carey’s proprietary month of December, the general high quality of the promos oozing into the AMG storage sump drops precipitously. Solely the determined or foolhardy purpose to drop albums in December and far of what’s launched ought to by no means have seen the sunshine of day. That makes any kind of seasonal playing with unknown acts particularly treacherous. As a result of I’m an ape who likes to stay dangerously, I took a high-risk flyer and grabbed the debut album by Salt Lake Metropolis’s Sacrilegion. Listed blandly as loss of life steel, this younger act spearheaded by vocalist/guitarist Connor Carlson is a wild, wooly slaughterhouse stuffed with bloody hooks and searing riffs that may make you arise straight and pay shut consideration. It took a couple of minute of play earlier than I knew my high-stakes gambit can be paying out handsomely, and From Which Nightmares Crawl wouldn’t be a December coal hearth in my unwashed stocking. Fortune favors the olde, motherfuckers!
Opener “A Horrible Pilgrimage to Search the Nighted Throne” is wordy however wastes no time terrorizing doubters and naysayers. It’s an intriguing mix of Morbid Angel-esque snakey riffs, the heavy armor crush of Bolt Thrower, and the quirkiness and the ‘throw every little thing on the listener’ strategy of The Chasm. The music might solely be 5:20 but it surely feels prefer it holds sufficient ace riffs for a full album. The loss of life steel brutality will get transitioned to good conventional steel riffs and blackened icy moments, and the mammoth beefbrained chug at 2.50 is the gore icing on the cadaver cake. “Puritanical Dementia” is one other scorcher with buzzing, herky-jerks riffs that approximate an amped-up Roomba™ careening off furnishings and partitions because it hunts dust and small pets to annihilate. This one is sheer loss of life steel glory distilled right down to a nasty 3 minute shot of adrenaline and also you want it in your bloodstream. “Tainting the Sky With Purple” continues the high-grade radiation publicity till your pores and skin turns a stunning shade of lifeless, and riffs right here mix loss of life and black steel influences impressively.
“Legacy of the Impaler” is one other triumph, sporting a giant Morbid Angel affect within the chaotic riffs however branching out into epic, majestic planes and ending the journey with extremely atmospheric guitar work. There’s additionally a De Profundis vibe within the music construction that makes every little thing go down as easily as a molten iron quaint. “The Hole Blue Eyes of Yomi” is one other absolute bunker-buster of riffs that borrows the very best of The Chasm’s madness and parlays it right into a killer piece of off-the-rails loss of life steel. There are sufficient high quality leads on this music for quite a few much less lucky acts, however Sacrilegion hoards all of them like Scrooge McDuck. There are not any unhealthy songs current, although a couple of miss hitting the higher ranges just like the aforementioned killers. This drags the general bundle down, however solely barely. At a good 44 minutes, the album flies by and plasters you with riffs the complete method. The manufacturing is kind of good with a giant, beefy guitar tone and a pleasantly heat general combine.
I’m extremely impressed by Connor Carlson’s top-notch loss of life vocals that are deep and guttural sufficient to resonate and pop. His blackened screams and rasps work very effectively too. The guitar work by Connor and Geronimo Santa Cruz is the true star right here although. There are simply so many superior riffs and wild fretboard masterclass moments that your head will probably be saved on a swivel. I used to be very taken by the guitars on the latest De Profundis platter, and that is not less than its equal. The way in which they mix and twist the loss of life, black, and conventional steel kinds into fascinating shapes is phenomenal and makes each music an unpredictable thrill trip. The entire band is in advantageous kind and the propulsive drumming by Ashton Childs is one more main weapon of their huge arsenal.
Generally the December sump throws out one thing nice after tormenting us for thus lengthy with sizzling rubbish. From Which Nightmares Crawl is a come-from-nowhere tentacle slap that makes you reassess your life, your priorities, and your year-end lists. For sure, I can’t wait to see what comes subsequent for this upstart band. The sky could be the restrict. Sufficient puffery! Come be part of the Sacrilegion.
Ranking: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Chaos Data
Web sites: sacrilegion.bandcamp.com/releases | fb.com/sacrilegion
Releases Worldwide: December ninth, 2022
