Sadomortuary – Inflicting Litanies of Torment

After a couple of demos (also available on a US-released compilation CD) and a split with Nameless Tomb, ‘Inflicting Litanies Of Torment’ is Sadomortuary’s first full-length album. In just over 30 minutes they give you a full showcase of what they have been working on since their inception some six years ago. And while their savage sounding blend of Black- and Death Metal usually doesn’t leave much room for variation or finesse, at least the Italians have proven to increasingly master their craft…

While Sadomortuary follows the more or less down trodden paths of the Bestial/War Black/Death Metal formula, the band’s heavy and bass-ridden approach to this niche genre is offering something that will surely please the true connoisseur amongst us. When comparing this full-length to what the band has been doing before, it is clear that none of their previously utilised recipe has been changes, yet it is needless to say that ‘Inflicting Litanies Of Torment’ sounds a lot of better than the band’s earliest demo recordings. But although these early recordings have their charming and bawdy roughness, on ‘Inflicting Litanies Of Torment’ the band has found a more definitive sound that allows the slow and grinding passages to fully attribute the album’s overall character.

As the great common denominator in virtually the entire global population of bands in this particular genre, the music is something of an ode to its early roots. Sadomortuary is also close to Beherit and Blasphemy, but with enough weight to the lows, both in bass, guitar and vocals, to give it a deep grinding character. This way it feels like Archgoat might the most logical comparison, if you ever needed one anyway. At least they do share the same relentlessness in pummelling tempos with sudden bursts of primitive speed and that overall appealing unrestrained brutality.

Sadomortuary has sprung from the same festering well that is Italy’s Lombardy area. This local scene also brought us bands such as VomitVulva, Black Ejaculation, Necromutilator, Deathfucker, In League With Satan and Macabro Genocidio. In good tradition, it might not surprise that the duo that is behind Sadomortuary is also active in a good amount of these local bands. So, this means that we are dealing with two seasoned scene veterans and on ‘Inflicting Litanies Of Torment’ we can indeed experience that they know their craft. (FelixS)

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People like different things and describe them in  different ways. More and more reviews I read, the same old vocabulary seems to appear in every one of those. Yes, language has its limitations, but to describe a record to someone who had never heard it solely as ‘brutal’ seems to be a bit vapid.

Especially when you are supposed to catch someone’s attention with your description (as reviews were meant to do) and hopefully introduce them to their new favorite release. Don’t get me wrong, in a lot of cases the words like ‘brutal’ are the most appropriate and  the only thing you can actually say about a certain release, but usually there’s much more hidden below when you listen to it. For instance here as Sadomortuarys new release starts off with a slightly distorted ‘Monks of the Dark Abbey’ (By D. & B. Fielchter – if you’re not  familiar with it, it is ‘sort of’ a new approach to gregorian chants), which, while being completely different from the rest of the record, sets the tone for it perfectly, exposing its dark, scary and haunting atmosphere.

But first, the beginning. Sadomortuary are an enigmatic Lombardian band with not a lot of internet presence (even their Facebook page doesn’t offer a lot of information into who the members of the band… although other pages with variable credibility suggest the two known members are veterans in the younger part of the Italian underground, having performed with bands like Radon Trench, Nuclear Wargod and Black Ejaculation respectively). Formed in 2018, after three demos, a split (with Germany’s Nameless Tomb) and a compilation (of demos and rehearsal tracks recorded at various times in the short history of the band), they finally released their meticulously crafted and precisely executed debut ‘Inflicting Litanies of Torment’ literally out of the blue.

Based only on titles of the songs, you can guess the aforementioned ‘Intro’ will take you through a well crafted mockery of a catholic mass – ‘Forced Swallowing of Blood’ followed by ‘Corpse Communion’ and all the way to the ‘Bells of Perverted Necrolatry’ after dealing with several titles dealing with a similar title of death ‘Embalming Unholy Rites’, ‘The Eternal Murder’ and ‘Ornaments of Lifeless Flesh’. Believe it or not, every one of these titles paints an exact picture of how those would look and sound, cleverly disguised in skin-ripping guitarwork, pounding drums and scary hellish vocals.

I previously mentioned ‘brutal’ and how it could give someone unacquainted with it the wrong idea. Sadomortuarys cauldron mixes Black and Death Metal to the extent it sounds like it had been recorded in the deepest circle of hell where traitors are getting tortured for their sins for the rest of eternity. Now that is ‘brutal’ in the best sense of the word. And Sadomortuary definitely delivers. This is how another commonly used word ‘ritual’ sounds when done by people who don’t follow the masses and mostly feed on good music. A proper ritual for any fan of bestial black rituals indeed. (Black Mary)