Interitus

Mass extinction in A minor
dB rating: 8/10

Release Date: October 14, 2016
Label: Redefining Darkness

Exceptional Brazilian death metal that does nothing new yet totally succeeds for reasons I’ll be obliged to enumerate. First, the songwriting enthralls like Shelob’s web spun fresh and splashed with tar. While Interitus is only the quartet’s second album, Escarnium have been at it for nearly a decade now, and have learned thing or two about building suspense and unleashing unstoppable hell—and only relenting to rear up and beat their proverbial chest as on the ending of “Omnis Mortuus est Interitus” (something like “all death is extinction”).

Another reason is the masterful, tight musicianship on display, but, specifically, how guitarists Sousa and Elian work together. As in the ending of “The Gray Kingdom” when the guitars clash and clang like napalm blasting through the dangling iron hooks and chains of imperial sadism—while the vocals, suffice to say, earn and keep their place amid this cataclysmic fury.

Finally, the production is so spot-on it’s unnoticeable. You’ll forget you’re listening to a band that recorded in a room as you simply enjoy the full-blown death metal assault. Missing are any old-school pretensions. Nor is this some bass-boom-laden track of clicky brutal shit. The clear production on Interitus gives the instruments room to evoke their own atmosphere. The guitars swarm, the drums buffet and avalanche, and the vocals burst up through the ground that the instruments continuously regenerate. Interitus reminds that in order to rule and win over the masses, death metal doesn’t need anything but to slay and slay well.

— Dutch Pearce

This review taken from the January 2017 issue. Interitus is available here on CD from Redefining Darkness.

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