ALBUM REVIEW: The Plague of the Aeons – Sporae Autem Yuggoth

Spawned of the unholy child of both doom and death metal, the aptly-named death/doom marries the oft-despairing weight of doom with the crushing heaviness and gutturals of death metal. Chilean newcomers SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH have recently crawled out of the undergrowth and are set to release their debut EP, The Plague of the Aeons, on an unsuspecting scene.

Death/doom is a difficult genre to get right, and it inherits some of that from doom. Ponderous is all well and good, but without enough new ideas or variance, songs become stale and overstay their welcome. The problems it inherits from both are that simplistic song structures can easily bore and cause listeners to lose focus or worse, switch off entirely. It’s a difficult balancing act as with all creative endeavours, and one that sadly, SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH fall prey to more often than they succeed. 

The Malignant Observer has a promising start; menacing feedback before a desolate howl and glacial riffing comes into play. The drumming feels a little sloppy especially around the fills, however, and its place in the mix effectively neuters its effectiveness. Vocals are also placed a little lower in the mix but their cavernous sound makes up for this, echoing like the howls of the damned down in the catacombs. Its closing squall of feedback sets up the opening of Crawling Towards the Tyrant nicely though there is the concern, especially as closer Cathedral of the Abuser pulls this trick too, that the band struggle to open songs any other way, with only third track Teleport to Obscurity bucking the trend. 

There’ some interesting moments here, to be sure. The solo guitar riffs interspersed with more frantic moments around the halfway mark of Crawling Towards the Tyrant are of particular note, as are the yearning, gloomy leads of Teleport to Obscurity. These are, however, overshadowed by the flaws. The overuse of feedback to open and as space-fillers during tracks gives the unfortunate impression of not being sure how else to fill the space or open songs. 

The sole track that doesn’t end this way, Cathedral of the Abuser, manages to get it wrong completely, almost making one wish the track had ended as the previous three. Right before its six minute mark, the band ramp up to a gallop and the song breaks out into a fast-paced fury, with wailing leads and frantic drumming. It’s a promising moment that could bridge into another movement of the song that all of a sudden, vanishes as the album fades out over around five seconds.

Being at least half doom, long songs are certainly the order of the day with The Plague of the Aeons, with the four tracks clocking in at a grand total of thirty minutes of desolation and despair; this isn’t a bad thing as the band usually have enough ideas to fill the time, though there are moments where things get a little bogged down in repetition. Sadly, the overuse of feedback and abrupt ending to the EP almost entirely derails the record. There’s promise here but also a lot of work that needs to be done for the band to make their mark on the scene in any way.

Rating: 5/10

The Plague of the Aeons is set for release March 5th via Personal Records. 

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