Rating: 8.7

Country: Peru

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Iron Pegasus

Track list:
1. Into The Nethermost
2. De Natura Daemonum
3. Black Demons
4. Shadows That Pray To Asurah
5. Qarqacha, Demon Of Incest
6. Dead Forms Of Evil
7. One With The Dead
8. Illusion Of Blood
9. Its Tomb Leads To Hell
10. Superstition

Total playing time: 48:31

Band Website: Mortem

Mortem - De Natura Daemonum

Amduscias - Drums
Fernán Nebiros - Guitar/Vocals
Wilber Rosán - Guitar
Juan Carlos Muro - Bass

As if the latest Pentacle record wasn’t enough, Costa and Iron Pegasus have decided to spoil us all with this new slab of certifiably South American death/thrash from Peru’s mightiest horde. To anybody acquainted with this legendary troupe, you would already be intimately familiar with the sonic spheres explored here. Mortem plunder the same fiendish depths first ravaged by the likes of Pestilence ('Malleus Maleficarum'), Death ('Scream Bloody Gore') and Possessed ('Seven Churches'), synthesizing more occidental leanings with the blowtorch bludgeon of contemporaries like Masacre and Hadez. The net result is, of course, death metal in its most devilishly focused form: starkly uncompromising, hypnotic and basking in hellfire.

If you abhor ‘’progress’’ in death metal as much as I do (Such a term being the impetus behind such inspired turns as Morgoth’s 'Feel Sorry For The Fanatic' and Amorphis’ post 'Karelian Isthmus' works, HAH!), rejoice in a band that has never been tempted by the debilitating beckons of pretension. The ethic exemplified by Mortem has been unshakeable from their inception, and while some may see their vehement refusal to evolve as being a hallmark of redundancy, people who know better know this is the way death metal MUST sound, and are thankful that a band like Mortem refuses to allow post-Death acolytes to extinguish death metal’s flickering flame. Thank Lucifer, then, that this is quite possibly the finest Mortem record since 'The Devil Speaks In Tongues'.

As a cheeky testament to their unwavering, single-minded dedication, Mortem have dated each of their songs in the booklet here. The three songs dating back to 1989 here slot comfortably into the rest of the material, proof positive to Mortem’s unyielding adherence to death metal’s most unhallowed traditions. From the opening invocation “Into The Nethermost”, it is clear that this record is, as with all Mortem records, acutely sensitive to death metal’s capacity for occultic expression, catapulting the listener through ungodly annals once opened by the likes of Deicide. This is SATANIC death metal, make no mistakes about it- demonic bellows teeming with triumphant infernal might, sludgy guitars that seep through your speakers like torrents of magma, relentless war drums that reanimate undead forces and URGE THEM INTO UNHOLY BATTLE, solos that squeal desperately like anguished, tormented souls charred by nether worldly flame.

In many senses, Mortem are quite a bit more American in slant than countrymen like Hadez, but when something is as genuine and uncompromisingly HELLISH as 'De Natura Daemonum', one can hardly protest- from first note to last I am transported to the first time I heard 'Scream Bloody Gore', 'From Beyond', 'Severed Survival', 'Abominations Of Desolation'…WUARGHHHHHHH! While all their records have been uniformly excellent, everything here feels more refined, more sharpened, more consummately executed, each note and each bar painstakingly honed to achieve maximum lethal effect. Solos never outstay their welcome, nary a frivolous, unnecessary fill is in sight, not a drum roll is misplaced, nor a vocal line overstretched. This is, of course, not to suggest that Mortem are cruising on auto pilot here. This is the sound of a band more assured of their prowess than ever before, extracting moments of intoxicating complexity (the scorching ascending solo that crescendos into a dueling 'Leprosy' type melody 01:30 into “Dead Forms Of Evil”) from straightforward, steamrolling structures. Songs are immaculately written, flowing from searing, breakneck sections into more nefarious, ominous passages that absolutely OOZE with foreboding menace before breaking into elaborate cleanly played, semi-melodic solos.

There is a very disciplined, restrained feel to the much of the malevolence here, and while everything is pummeling and punishing, it is never reckless or impetuous, the musicians playing strictly within their boundaries and within the framework of the song, meticulously orchestrating each stroke to work within the grander context of the composition. This is, of course, a FANTASTIC relief in an age where death metal musicians have delusions of grandeur, switching their death metal licks for fusion jazz for dummies textbooks. FUCK THAT, this is as good as death metal musicianship can get without resorting to pretentious schlockiness.

This isn’t some gimmicky revivalist crap, considering Mortem have been existent from the late ‘80s, this is honest, overwhelmingly HEAVY death metal that will knock the wind out of you and trample on your skull. Hell, I even enjoy the portentous pseudo-horror interludes that are wedged between the unrelenting ferocity, accentuating the ritualistic, hymnal feel of the record. Absolutely flawless, absolutely essential.

June 24th, 2005