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Sheolgeenna: The dark chambers... (shukra kteis, maher-salalhas-baz)
06/12/11 || Suffolation
Death metal comes from all over, not just Sweden and Florida. There’s Infertile Surrogacy from the Congo Republic for fuck’s sake! It doesn’t get more obscure or random than that. Today’s ass whooping band from a country you wouldn’t expect is Sheolgeena from Chile. Formed in 1997, they released a demo titled “Emerged from outside skies” and a full length in 2002 called….shit….”The Dark Chambers…(Shukra Kteis, Maher-Salalhas-Baz).” We’re just gonna call it “The Dark Chambers” from here on it, if you don’t mind. Jesus M. Christ, I haven’t been fucked over by long as titles and shit like that since that prick Shawn from Insidious Decrepancy. I don’t want to have to spend time coming up with mnemonic devices just to remember a goddamn song!!
Anyway, enough of my bitching about song titles, onto bitching about the actual music. Sheolgeenna is a 5-piece band who, sometime after releasing this slab of badass death metal, sadly broke up. The main influence I hear is Morbid Angel, with maybe some Vader, and deeper vocals akin to Glen Benton or Ross Dolan. Very thrashy, lots of winding tremolo picked riffs. The lyrics and song titles are half in English, half in some god-awful dead language. They preach entirely about the occult, probably plagiarizing half of it from a Necronomicon they now have 3 months overdue at their local library. But hey, it makes for sorta cool, sorta ridiculous song titles, and I can’t understand the fucking lyrics anyway, so I don’t give a piss. The album art fits it with an odd color scheme, some lady on an altar, and what appears to be the Virgin Mary. Eh, nothing special, but fitting. But the logo has a goddamn MOON in it, so they get extra points there. Not too jiggedy, but still cool.
The guitars have a very nice tone to them. They aren’t dropped super low to where it sounds like a whale shitting, but they are low enough to have considerable crunch and still maintain their tightness and bite. They generally stick to a blast pace with some really serpentine tremolo picked work. The riffs twist and wind like a Satanic serpent crushing the planet and suffocating you with no mercy. Some of the riffs are harmonized as well, adding an even more sinister and chaotic effect to them. For a good idea of what the riffs are like check out what I think is the best track on the album, ”Iccha Shukra”. To these ears, it sounds like a cross between the eeriness of “God of emptiness” and the riff progression of “Here in after”. Lead work is prevalent as solos in a few songs. Some wicked ass tapping with lots of mind-fuckingly fast arpeggios are the name of the game here. Not too outstanding, he’s no Jeff Loomis, but he’s got the Azagthoth clone shit down to a T. The bass is more or less inaudible, as always, but to keep up with these fast ass riffs, that must be a task. So, I can’t bitch too much.
The drums are one of the high points in this album. The drummer never slows down, never loses track of where he is, always mixes shit up, just DAMN. I find no real flaws here. His beats are interesting and fitting for the music. The fills are ridiculous and all over the place and he does one like every two seconds. The tone of the drums is fucking sweet too; whereas most underground DM, you find the snare sounds like someone hitting pots and pans (I’m looking at you Human Mastication), all the drums here are mixed properly and have amazing tone to them. The snare snaps tightly, the double bass pounds and the toms…tom very well. Nothing slows this motherfucker down. The vocals are indeed gruff and deep much like that of Ross Dolan or the vocalist from Drawn and Quartered. Not a cavernous, demonic deep, like Incantation or Vasaeleth, a tight, “don’t fuck with me or I’ll murder and rape you, in that order” deep, somewhat like Glen Benton or the aforementioned Dolan. They even do some of those lows layered over a higher pitched mid-range growl, much like early Deicide.
Well there you have it! Who would have thought badass fucking death metal could come from Chile? I guess there are also Thornafire and Unaussprechlichen Kulten originating from the same country, but hey, this is way more underground and kvlt. I bet you twenty bucks you never heard this shit! Pay up, bitch. Check this shit out if you like old-school greats like Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Immolation with some flair. This is really nothing new, but that’s not what death metal is about. Play it heavy, play it well. And Sheolgeenna certainly does this in spades.
- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Rawforce Productions
- Website: none
- Band
- Darkon: vocals
- Warrior: guitar
- Draconis: guitar
- Anekkiannye: bass
- Pablos Clares: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Trameron Psykje Domain
- 02. Emerged From Outside Skies
- 03. Iccha Shukra
- 04. Physika, Mystica, Tenibria
- 05. Artmagika-Shoget
- 06. Shamadi
- 07. Cursed Eon of Eternal Bonfire
- 08. Apocrifos
- 09. Perpetus Panthey Edenic Na-Fal
- 10. Kheprer Kheprou Scaraboeus Sacer
