Saevus Finis – Facilis Descensus Averno
Release Date: 12th January 2024
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Brutal Death, Blackened Death, Noise/Death/Grind.
FFO: Immolation, Burial Hordes, Incantation, Morbid Angel, Viande, Maere.
Review By: Andy Spoon
As my first foray into the music of 2024, I am happy to be able to start the year off with an act that I find will be right up the alley of any Transcending Obscurity Records fans, Saevus Finis, with their forthcoming LP Facilis Descensus Averno (F.D.A.), set to be released on January 12th, 2024. The Portuguese trio of musicians involved in the project are Mortvorvm (Wells Valley) – Vocals, Guitars, Sangvis Aestvs (Concealment) – Bass, and MCMXII – on Drums.
I was glad to see that some bands from Portugal are coming to the forefront of their respective genres in recent years, Gaerea being the most notable example as my 2020 AOTY. It’s amazing to see that a few bands in any country or region can start to lift or elevate a scene to the global listening market. For everything else, there’s the assistance of a proper record label. Enter Transcending Obscurity, one of the labels that had been producing band after band on my “top 10” lists throughout the years. I’m genuinely happy that T.O. is producing such high-quality content.
F.D.A. is absolute hellfire that was birthed right out of the Blackened Death womb. There can be no doubt that this will probably be one of the heavier “Dark” death albums all year, even though it’s so early in the year. I like to think I have a good sense for this. I felt the same way with Pyramid Mass’ Monolith in 2023. Right off the bat, I was thinking, “oh yeah, this is gonna be wild”. F.D.A. is 10 tracks of absolutely-delicious noise which seems to live deep within the bowels of the various subgenres from which it’s taken its style. I haven’t heard many of the artists who give us this type of music, so I’m thrilled to have Saevus Finis bring me into the cleft of this mesmerizing culture.
One of the things that comes up is the masterful art of repetition of certain things that cause such an atmospheric “illness” to the music. The “noise” elements are prevalent in every single track. It’s like there is a blend of groove/noise metal that creates a battering, resounding, inflexible noise wall that is partially reminiscent of girthy doom metal releases. There isn’t a basis of musical structure on most of the tracks. Rather, the guitars and bass play masses of sludgy noise up and down the necks to a rhythmic bliss that supersedes the entire drum section (which I’ll get to in a moment).
The guitars and bass are just….SO….fucking low and gritty. The guitars are just filthy across the whole album. I am not sure if it’s the bands that Transcending Obscurity likes to feature, or the production. Frankly, I’d like to investigate it more. One of the reasons that I’m a stalwart Transcending Obscurity fan is the absolute nightmare of guitar feel that almost every album employs so-expertly. The rhythmic growling and chunkiness that the musical section brings is absolutely the most-important part of F.D.A., and I mean that. If there was an instrumental release of this album, it’d be just as good as the original release. The “flight of the bumblebees” effect of the instrumental section eclipses everything else on the entire record.
Drums and vocals really seem to be an afterthought, at least to me, in the production of the record. The vocals are extremely-dark and seem to come right out of the brutal death grab bag of unintelligible goodness. The soundstage of the album is generally centered around the main rhythm guitar. The vocals and drums seem to be more of an accent to complete the “outfit”. If the guitars are the wool suit, the drums and guitars are the hat and shoes, so-to-speak. That being said, I think that the vocal delivery on some of the tracks highlights the possibility of greater extension of the sound, something I would have really preferred. For an example, the first minute of “Overrun by Pests” clearly shows that vocalist Mortvorvm’s range can go from the pit-of-hell growling lows to a strong midrange high scream that is absolutely, undoubtedly most-welcome to my humble ears.
Overall, I was just thrilled with F.D.A., even though attempting to spell any of it stresses me out as I am not a kvlt scholar. It’s definitely a band for anyone that loves the dark, doomy, noise-death projects that often frequent the Transcending Obscurity catalog every year. With psychotically-wild guitar work and atmosphere for miles, I think that this is a band to 100% pay attention-to when looking into some of the most entertaining sludgy death music out there (Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, etc).
(4.5 / 5)
