Perishing’s 2025 album ‘Malicious Acropolis Unveiled’ is an excellent work of sombre Death/Doom that sounds like a churning miasma of Eternal Darkness and Catacomb with the low end crunch of Rippikoulu and some of Thergothon‘s atmospheric touches. Trudging at a sluggish crawl for much of the run time, the feeling of this album is like sliding down a cliff in a mud slide while starting to nod off and fall asleep after a night of psychedelic drugs and liquor.
The production is excellent and adds alot of character to the recording. I really like the bass tone and the mix, it’s respected here not pushed to the sidelines like many bands. Perishing understands the importance of the bass for foundational heaviness and it stands alongside the guitars, not so much just subservient low end to their riffs but adding something more – alongside the guitar buzzing and pulsing like an underground wasp nest that has been agitated. Drums are rubbery at some parts the toms especially have a nice bounce to them, with massive sounding crashing cymbals and a kick drum that hits like a muffled heart beat under the floorboards. The vocals sound straight from a musty tomb like a zombie – not overly brutal or guttural sounding but very old school, commanding and wretched. In some parts the style is deeper like a toad creature bellowing in a bubbly festering swamp of ooze and filth.
‘Castle of the Leached Body’ has a bit of everything on display, massive bassy crashing Doom chords that hang in the air like smoke, stomping D-beat cemetary parts, Death Metal tremolo swirling madness sections where the band rips it into high gear as well as haunting guitar melodies that are injected into the bloodstream and wash over the listener. Those amazing clean guitar ethereal Finnish Funeral Doom influenced passages where it’s like the musical equivalent of basking in the glory of the northern lights and then the ice melts beneath your feet until you fall infinitely down into cold depths. The ice in the veins crawl of the funeral procession continues.
Following last year’s ‘Lutum’ demo, this Costa Rican band brings a strong addition to the genre here, a macabre ride through an old castle. Later in the album (as well as sprinkled here and there throughout) there are some spare blasting sections where they bring the speed up a touch but only momentarily before falling back into the icy cold. Well written and interesting music, I’ve been on a real “Slow Metal” kick lately and have been listening to tons of Doom and this feels feels comparatively detailed with variations on repetitions and tightly written riffs, it hypnotizes you while varying the pendulum’s path. There’s not so much hammering away on a single riff idea for eight minutes straight here, rather the songs breathe and grow organically and have a certain lifeblood to them. The sound of plunging off the edge of a cliff into a huge stormy sea where a whirlpool opens and you fall dying into it, an excellent choice for an autumn or winter’s day listen.
