Fossilization - Leprous Daylight (2023)^{Release ID: 47230}

I had a few reservations about Fossilization's 2021 EP, He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten, going into it with the feeling that it was definitely something that should really appeal to me. It was from members of a band I really enjoy (Brazil's Jupiterian) and they were playing my favourite style of death metal, the cavernous old-school version, so it should have been a no brainer, yet I felt there was sadly something lacking. Maybe my expectations for a couple of members of Jupiterian were misplaced, anticipating a more doom-filled approach to their death metal that didn't really transpire.

So, two years on and I am going into their debut full-length with my eyes much more wide open and my expectations held in check. Initial impressions were that little has changed and I still felt a bit short-changed, yet... As exposure to it increased with additional playthroughs, I am beginning to overcome my reticence and am actually really starting to enjoy this M-F. Although there are a number of doomier moments during the runtime, this is far more effective when it is pummelling the loving shit out of you, such as during the faster sections of the title track or The Night Spoke the Tongue of Flames, where it feels like you have thrust your face in front of a sandblaster! The guitar sound is a real down and dirty old cavernous sound that has been dug up from some music production graveyard, ably boosted by thundering basslines and infernal blastbeats whilst Vakka's hoarse growling roars threaten to strip away your sanity with tales of demonic delight at the destruction of the world we know and the advent of hell on Earth.

The album is quite short, it's eight tracks only amounting to a 36 minute runtime, but this is to it's credit as it doesn't outstay it's welcome, which I think a longer album of this intensity would. The band wield a consummate savagery that evidences their South American lineage, no one quite does metal viciousness like the South Americans do they? Ultimately, through sheer adrenaline intensity and technical adroitness, the duo have won me over and I take back all my earlier misgivings.