It is as if you have found yourself bearing witness to numerous blackened skin lesions that now consume your flesh. The sort of flaking scabby abnormalities that are inflicted upon you after falling victim to an anthrax infection. Unearthing the vibrational frequencies of Brazil’s Fossilization may truly be a catalyst for the outbreak of a long-dormant and audibly contagious pathogenic disease. This earth-smattered Death Metal / Doom Metal outfit has once again successfully infected the crypts (cough Suffocation reference) of their curious record label, that being Italy’s Everlasting Spew. Why do I connotate these references to earth, mud and the underground tectonic realms to this band? Because like their namesake, Fossilization plays Death Metal that exists in a subterranean state. Deliberately buried beneath ancient soil for all eternity, never to be discovered… that is, until you metalhead tomb raiders dare brave the lithosphere fissures that expose the sounds of this new record. Album number two from this outfit, entitled ‘Advent Of Wounds’, is upon us.
This aeons forgotten forbidden entity of an album opens with the eerily titled ‘Cremation Of A Seraph’. The track explodes from its outset with a focus on a furious central riff that commands the voluptuous gravity of the instrumentation and encases the listener like millions of freshly disturbed spores finding their way into every last textile fibre of your clothing. This terrifying excavation continues with the following track ‘Disentombed And Reassembled By The Ages’. The song features a similar explosive volatility as the previous one, but between its moments of extreme aggression, the band draws upon these short but suffocating sections of doomy interplay which become shrouded under near-microtonal dissonant lead guitars. I love how the song closes out in a slowed fashion with the leads, in tandem with the interesting throttle of the drum performance.
‘Scalded By His Sacred Halo’ opens with a showcase of the album’s monolithic, wall of sound guitar tones before the full band dials in on another central musical structure. The song has a simplistic nature with a repetitive lead guitar progression. The nightmarish hypnotism imbued by this composition is incredibly intense. I must add that the vocals on this track, as on many other places amongst the tracklist, sound truly guttural, almost as if you are listening to the raging geological oration of the Earth’s core. The song ‘Terrestrial Mold’ exercises a hulking simplicity similar to the previous track but this time to a less entrancing and interesting measure. The riffs on this track feel a little too pedestrian and linear when compared to the other material leading up to this point. ‘Servo’ is more interesting from a compositional standpoint with its huge horn opening followed by deep saturated guitar chugs and commanding snare rolls. The song proceeds through its intense passages featuring a polyrhythmic section before closing out to a moment of ambient tribalism. This leads into the more mid-tempo track ‘While The Light Lasts’ before closing on another brutal moment of pulverising quality with ‘Temple Of Flies And Moss’.
Fossilization has followed up their 2023 debut ‘Leprous Daylight’ with a second admirable full-length addition to their catalogue. I particularly enjoy the characteristic soil-caked sound that reminds me of how the band Frozen Soul displays their own particular take on a cryogenically frozen approach to Death Metal. The album features plenty of absolutely crushing moments for the majority of its thirty-six minutes. In a small handful of moments, the band does seem to leave me with a desire for more interesting riff-writing. That said, I consider this a rather inconsequential critique when considering the addictive performative chops across the album’s broader instrumental board.
