Rating: 8.4

Country: US

Release Date: 2008

Record Label: Self Released

Track list:
1. The fall of 66
2. Humanity's Dirge
3. Led to Disaster
4. Intolerance
5. Conflagration

Band Website: Sanguis Imperem

Sanguis Imperem - The Stagnation of Centuries

S.S. - Vocals, guitars
R.S. - Bass, Vocals
J.G. - Drums

The stomping sound of marching boots awakens the drummer who like any skilled musician immediately takes notice of it and reproduces it, on his drum kit. Thus begins the music of this new militant death metal outfit whose debut MCD was cunningly planted in my mailbox but detonated only in my discman. Guitars lead the song forward solemnly, as though realising with each step the immensity of their great burden, nonetheless filling the atmosphere with dread and awe. If you were to listen to it on headphones, the ones without having noise reduction technology, from the background you will probably get to hear stifled gasps and girly shrieks cut-short by an elder, shuffling sounds of footsteps that begin scurrying followed by the sound of someone invariably bumping into the other and falling down, only to be crushed noisily like a cockroach under the huge boots of the inexorably marching Sanguis Imperem.

“Humanity's Dirge” bears more than a passing resemblance to newer Incantation, making you grovel endlessly for mercy, because its riffs, carrying additional Grave-like weight, have the effect on you of a shovel being slowly twisted in your gut, messing up the food contents as you think of your mom who kept telling you to chew your food properly. The song then adopts excellent black metal-tinted riffs and martial beats to which you twitch on the floor, revelling in your punishment, and that is when the song brings back its dark death riffs to intensify your experience. Meanwhile, a few Destroyer 666-esque leads interpose the music repeating a similar tune for the sake of emphasis, like a wife arguing in between in his husband's fights from behind his shoulder. “Led to Disaster” begins with an ominous Incantation tune and is alternated with ground-shattering parts that give off the feeling akin to suffering a travelling earthquake. Surely enough, the song is interspersed with potent blackened parts and accompanying disintegrating rasps, and later some lethal riffs are played before the bell is rung to signal the end of that playtime. “Intolerance” and “Conflagration” showcase terrifying malevolence which has to be heard to be believed or felt. That is beautifully countered with gloomy dark death segments, rare stirring riffs, and entrancing black metal dissonance that draws out the soul from your battered body. The vocals, deeply growled and rasped, are so hateful that it makes you wonder what you ever did to the vocalists to deserve this attitude of theirs. The best part about it, apart from the great voice, is that it has no fixed delivery pattern; it constantly changes to suit the right tone and mood of the music so that you always remain wary of it.

The manner in which Sanguis Imperem have treated a deceptively sedate form of dark death metal by injecting black metal viciousness to it and then adopting a fearsome militant approach while executing it is sheer brilliance and ingenuity. Of an undeniable dictatorial disposition, The Stagnation of Centuries is a confident and effective debut, one of the best I have heard in recent times.

July 15th, 2008