Engulfed – Vengeance of the Fallen (Dark Descent Records. 2020).
The Turkish trio have unleashed a monstrous EP that will crush, kill and destroy, with the Incantation/Immolation style Death Metal plunging you into a raging vortex of Chaos and ancient evil. The first song, Rites of Abandoned Heretics, is an epic 8-minute affair masterfully written that you will barely notice the length and will be hungering for more once it comes to an end. A churning sea of Stygian riffs and bass drum rolling like the waves of the primordial Chaos helps evoke the suffocating stench of incense and blood as your mind wanders to some subterranean realm full of hooded figures. You find yourself in rapturous ecstasy as the crushing riffs assault you, and as the song slowly fades with that evil riff and melody from around the 6-minute song, you will feel the overpowering, immutable power of Hell triumphant still residing within your mind even as the song fades out. There is no respite or breathing space before Summoning the Black Death comes raging forth with a high-speed, relentless assault with hammering drums pounding away at your mind. The solo around 3:30 mark is fantastic, delivered perfectly over a less intense riff. I find it hard to describe why the solo section is so killer, it just seems to be imbued with some dread magnificence that adds to the raging chaos of the rest of the song and accentuates the evil atmosphere. Overall, this is a vicious EP in the style of the masters of malevolence, Incantation and Immolation, that evokes mental vistas of the primordial chaos that was the sea of Absu, roiling with unfathomable abominations and terrible serpentine beings. You can feel the world disintegrating and collapsing into the roaring Abyss whilst listening to this EP, especially around the 6-minute mark on Cycle of Black Altar, where you feel as if your very material existence is being torn apart as Time and Space disintegrate and you are returned to that primordial sea of Absu or as if you are plummeting into the flames of Hell. Either way, make sure to check this EP out if you hunger for Death.
8/10.
SADISTIC SCREAMS 