UTTERTOMB – Nebulas Of Self-Desecration

vote
7.0

• Bands:
  UTTERTOMB
• Duration: 00:43:13
• Available from: 04/19/2024
• Label:

• Pulverised Records

Streaming not yet available

From the always interesting extreme Chilean undergrowth, Uttertomb arrive on Pulverised Records, with the first full-length of a career that began a good dozen years ago. A quartet based in the capital Santiago, the boys have evidently done things very calmly so far, putting together a long series of demos, EPs and splits before tackling their real debut album, which is presented by a beautiful cover signed by Serbian artist Atterigner (Burial Hordes, Disbelief, Innumerable Forms). The artwork itself first suggests the tragic character of the album, which explores a sound that combines the love for a pillar of the most murky death metal like Incantation with a certain propensity for solemnity and a denser mood tending towards black metal, in the wake of established contemporary realities such as Grave Miasma or Venomous Skeleton. Dark and oppressive arias blend with intricate and sinister riffs, creating an atmosphere of tension and mystery which however is broken quite frequently by an intelligent game of arpeggios and some veils of synth, which help to underline those passages in which the band tries to take a breath and move to less exasperating registers.
Uttertomb move within a genre that often limits itself to dull reiterations and clichés, with groups that play the card of density at all costs to hide a substantial lack of ingenuity and panache on a guitar level. “Nebulas Of Self-Desecration” is not exactly a record in which the riff reigns supreme, but, at the same time, we are not even faced with a work where the depths of the abyss correspond only to a buzz without flickers. The band’s main skill lies in its attention to climate change, with suffocating uptempos that are almost always alternated with slower, if not downright martial, textures. The tracklist, for example, already presents in fourth position a gloomy midtempo like “Opisthotonic Funerals”, a break in which to stop and float and contemplate the four’s atmospheric research.
All the nuances of the sound are then summarized in the over eight minutes of the title track, a full-bodied suite in which the Mephistophelian melody transforms into a black-death hybrid supported by varied rhythms, ending in a final part with an exuberant climax that ascends towards cosmic heights.
In short, the quality of the so-called songwriting is good: we are not yet in the presence of a breath of fresh air in this specific panorama, however it cannot be said that Uttertomb completely avoid getting involved and mixing the ingredients a bit. Theirs is a solid debut album, which can also boast two or three above-average compositions.