ALBUM REVIEW: Clamor Luciferi – 1782
In 1782 Swiss housemaid Anna Göldi became one of the last people tried and executed on charges of witchcraft. 236 years later on the enigmatic island of Sardinia, Marco Nieddu (guitar/vocals) and Gabriele Fancellu (drums/vocals) would form a doom band with that infamous year as their name, in honour of all the witches that had been murdered by bigots. After five years of destroying stages and summoning demons with dominating, diabolical doom riffs, the band return with their third album Clamor Luciferi, which translates as “the scream of Lucifer”. The scream of Lucifer itself is a hostile sound that brings with its notions of uproar and terror, both of which 1782 have packed into this album, as they play their darkest, heaviest riffs to make you succumb to the Devil’s scream.
Like most Sardinian bands, there is an intrinsic mysticism in 1782’s music and the environment that this album was created in has audibly impacted its direction. The album is rich in occult themes and tales from their mysterious home island which is littered with mysterious ruins and folk legends. 1782 set out to hypnotise you with a ritualistic fervour; Clamor Luciferi sees the Sardinian trio pump out their most evil sounding songs to date, drenched in fuzz with a dark psychedelic edge that hypnotises you into submission. The album feels like a natural successor to the band’s 2021 album From The Graveyard, as you progress from the graveyard ritual down into the depths of hell itself via an out of body spiritual experience. As you gradually descend through these levels of hell through the act of unholy ritual, you feel a variety of raw, primal and visceral emotions come over you. The album feeds off of this energy like a soul eating succubus and laughs manically as its riffs loom large over you.
1782 are masters of creating ominous, domineering, shadowy atmospheres with aggressive, mammoth-sized riffs and far off vocals that sound as if the void is calling to you. The album conjures up vivid and sinister imagery in your mind. Given the band’s name you can feel the icy fingers of those long dead witches reaching out towards you ready to pull you into the blackness of purgatory in which they roam, their spirits unable to be liberated from their torment. With that in mind, it is safe to say that the dark magic at work throughout Clamor Luciferi is very much tangible. 1782 make a concerted effort to build the atmospheres within the songs, utilising eerie melodies, foreboding drones and hypnotic drum beats to lull you into a trance before ramping it up and laying down monolithic bass and guitar riffs that demolish your ear drums with their ELECTRIC WIZARD style fuzz.
The album opens up with a haunting and creepy organ introduction called A Merciful Suffering. The sombre, legato notes of the instrument convey anxiety, suffering, darkness, melancholy and pestilence. This is when you feel like you’re in the presence of the shadowy beings and evil deities. The album officially kicks in with the deafening clamour of Succubus. Deep snarling riffs come at you from all angles as the drums drive the song forward with an entrancing half time beat, the amps must have been running red hot with the amount of fuzz erupting through their speakers. The song leads nicely into Demons, which starts with an uneasy intro melody which 1782 double down on for the main riff. This is probably one of the heavier songs on the album; you can feel the weight of the riffs on your shoulders and the ritualistic darkness worms its way into your soul.
Black Rites continues to amplify this sense of terror and doom as Nieddu’s vocals reverberate off of the walls of the void with cryptic messages. Tumultus XIII feels like a funeral march; the steady, rhythmic pounding of the toms has you nodding your head uneasily as your feet begin to tap in a marching motion. This instrumental is a hypnotic and psychedelic interlude in album that is full of chaos and blackness. After the final, trippy drone of Tumultus XIII fades out, River Of Sins thrusts you straight back into the fire. A skull-crushing riff comes barraging in and knocks you for six, six, six. Devil’s Blood brings back the uneasy psychedelics of Tumultus XIII before crescendoing into grainy, raw and merciless riffing. This sounds like the soundtrack to a demonic communion. Closing the album is Death Cemetery, and by now you have completely succumbed to 1782’s doom magic and the ritual is complete.
Clamor Luciferi is a vivid album that sees 1782 at their demonic best. Some of the band’s heaviest and most evil songs can be found on this album. Beautifully sinister and captivatingly ominous, 1782 have occult-themed doom down to a fine art.
Rating: 8/10
Clamor Luciferi is set for release on April 14th via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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