Serpent of Chaos

Porta Daemonium are another band having crawled out of an ancient and putrid dungeon from somewhere deep within the Chilean jungle to punish the world with ghoulish music. Taking a lot of inspiration from bands like Incantation or Drawn and Quartered they present their debut album which is a beast consisting of rumbling rhythms harmonies that will haunt the listener even after the record has finished. After a lot of demos and singles “Serpent of Chaos” is their first full length – although that might be a bit of a misleading indication as we are talking about 27 minutes of music of which the first three minutes are just the (very great though) intro.

The guitar tone is gritty and raw adding to the overall brutal sound. The riffs are powerful and remind of some of the big classics that had been released in the nineties. The solo sections are kept short and fresh never overstaying their welcome. The whole record just feels really energetic and made my blood rushing while listening to the music. Porta Daemonium know how ramp up the technical complexity in places so that their tracks do not sound overly simplistic. The combination of the primitive rhythms and the furious instrumental work is presented in a way that one does not stand in the way of the other.

At first glance the music of Porta Daemonium has a quite primitive vibe. This impression is further enhanced by the putrid production with the guitars being down-tuned and having a fuzzy tone and the drums having a very rough sound reminding of some bush drums being abused by a rabid gorilla. Taking a deeper look at the song structures it becomes clear that there is more to the music than just rawness and aggression. Clever moments like short break-downs or variation of the main riffs and a few rhythm changes put in the right places enhance the sound. Those elements are used subtly and are woven into the walls of brutal sound. Enhanced by atmospheric and eerie elements the record feels like a sinister trip into the depth of dark places.

The vocals are deep and growly and while there are other death metal singers that articulate the lyrics in a better understandable way they are completely serviceable and perfectly fit to the music. This kind of raw and slightly monotonous growling style seems to have some kind of renaissance these days with bands like Tomb Mold, Outer Heaven or Of Feather and Bone being highly praised by the community. The delivery underlines the filthy nature of the music. Rounded off by a slightly disturbing cover “Serpent of Chaos” should be a safe bet for any fan of cavernous death metal. If my info is correct there will soon be a split with another Chilean death metal band called Denying Nazarene.