ALBUM REVIEW: The Festering Dwellers – Shrieking Demons
Italian death metallers SHRIEKING DEMONS may only have a couple of releases under their belt since their formation in 2021, but the Bologna-based quintet are already showing plenty of promise with the small amount of music they have produced so far. Their 2021 demo, Diabolical Regurgitations, encapsulated the band’s old school death metal sound, but boasted vibrant musicianship and monstrous hooks that made it clear that this wasn’t going to be just another classic death metal band. Their debut album, The Festering Dwellers, builds upon the many strengths of their demo, and sees the band begin to introduce touches of doom, punk and thrash into their lively sound, making for an powerful and emphatic first record that establishes SHRIEKING DEMONS as one of Italy’s strongest new acts.
Devour My Wicked Soul, a dark and ominous piece with crawling, sinister guitars and an eerie atmosphere, sets a dramatic tone for the rest of the album. It shifts from ponderous, haunting beginnings through to rabid, biting death metal that utilises caustic, shrieking vocals, chunky, buzzsaw hooks and authoritative drums to create a powerful and intense opening salvo. It’s firmly rooted in classic death metal without being formulaic and tired in its approach. Abstract Hallucinating sees the slick, virtuosic leads take on a central role, with this lighter brand of extremity being paired with subtly progressive flourishes that break up the meaty death-doom that serves as its backbone, developing a livelier, energetic edge.
Sorrowful Dismal Bliss, with its swampier distortion and pounding rhythms, is another excellent slab of slow, brooding death-doom that possesses a swaggering undercurrent of desert rock, along with punchier punk-inflected moments, that lends it a weightier, warmer sound that, whilst still firmly rooted in 90s death metal, provides an interesting twist upon a well established formula. Nefarious, Scorned Deities I Am Devoted To serves as a brilliant burst of frenetic, demented musicianship that is the most straight forward iteration of death metal so far, but expertly keeps the pace fast and the grating, punishing barbs at the musical forefront, transforming it into a ferocious and impressive effort that proves to be one of the record’s more visceral outings. Perennial Dirge adopts the death ‘n’ roll style that began to make its presence felt on Sorrowful Dismal Bliss and explores it in greater detail, with the muscular riffs, focused percussion and coarse, throaty vocals all giving this a stripped back, no frills element that instantly draws the listener in and adds a rawer, primal feel into this magnificently varied album.
Garden of the Headless Dead, a brief segue that embraces disjointed, cleaner guitars and the dramatic, immersive sound that kicked this album off, helps to make the transition into the albums second half hair-raisingly cinematic, providing the perfect set up for what immediately follows it. Longing for Total Eclipse sees the music take on a polished and epic quality that tempers the harsh death metal to push into imaginative and grandiose realms, with a generous dose of thrash thrown in for good measure, resulting in arguably one of this record’s strongest offerings. Compromised Brain follows in a similar vein, but ties these soaring leads and bombastic fills to funereal death-doom, veering between these slower moments and unflinchingly rabid and disjointed ones with ease, again covering a broad spectrum of extremity to make the most adventurous effort possible.
By contrast with this vibrant slab of brutality, Awakening from Secular Slumber is a chugging, mid-paced stomp made up of dense rhythms with abrasive vocals and bleak hooks carving through the mix and saving this from being a wholly bland affair, being a solid, but ultimately forgettable number when compared with earlier tracks. Apostasy, Sodomy and Sacrilege, a galloping, rhythmic juggernaut with some great, expansive lead guitar work, strikes a fine balance between classic death metal and the grandiose elements that have made this album so impressive throughout, using its monolithic backdrop as the perfect foil off of which to bounce discordant, technical musicianship and thunderous aggression, bringing this album to a conclusion on an incredibly effective note.
Whereas many bands that are firmly rooted in old school death metal tend to be defined solely by that style and emulate their influences a little too closely, SHRIEKING DEMONS not only manage to carve out their own niche, but also add their own flavour to proceedings, making sure that The Festering Dwellers stands apart from many of its contemporaries. It’s also an album that ebbs and flows across the extreme metal spectrum to create a more eclectic sound, with hints of doom and thrash metal looming large in these songs. It keeps things interesting and results in a much more impressive album overall, showcasing a serious amount of songwriting confidence for a band on their first full length, and providing a lofty benchmark for the band to overcome on any subsequent releases.
Rating: 8/10
The Festering Dwellers is available now via Transcending Obscurity Records
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