Review by Sonny for Sepulcros - Vazio (2021)

I always though Portugal was a nice sunny place, but Lisbon's Sepulcros have laid that belief to rest as there must be something very dark lurking there for the band to tap into in order to produce an album this dark-sounding, because what we have here seems to ooze up from unfathomed abyssal depths before exploding to the surface and covering everything with a pall of utter and impenetrably dark bleakness. In other words, ridiculously sublime old-school death doom that often borders on funeral doom, particularly on my favourite track, Magno Caos which should appeal to all Esoteric fans out there.
The album's production is heavily built on the old-school cavernous sound, which may even be a little bit overdone because at times it just sounds a little too distant. Sérgio Batista (ex-Blacksunrise singer) has a great line in deathly, guttural growls and sounds extremely menacing. The drums sound particularly prominent throughout, especially on the faster death metal sections, and the guitar sounds a little subdued as a result, although this does mean that the overall sound is more rumbling and indistinct, adding yet another layer to the menace of the atmosphere. The pacing of the tracks is such that they never become dull monotones, with funereal dirges suddenly exploding into breakneck blasting.
For me this a really solid example of the hybridisation of extreme doom metal with death metal and, despite it being one of the older forms of extreme metal, it still has the ability to produce engaging and interesting albums. On the evidence of Vazio I think Sepulcros may be a band yet capable of producing a modern extreme doom classic release sometime in the not-too-distant future, but for now I'll settle for this.