VACUOUS: UK Dark Death Metal Horde Announce Vinyl Reissue of Crushing Debut MLP "Katabasis" - Full Stream And Pre-Orders Available.

Vacuous' monstrous debut mini-album "Katabasis" sees a vinyl reissue via Sentient Ruin after its limited first pressing sold out shortly after its original 2021 release. With this release the London, UK-based death horde refined its dismal and pulverizing dark death metal sound, using influences from bands like Incantation, Immolation, and Autopsy to forge an unseen weapon of sonic terror. "Katabasis" immediately established Vacuous as a rising unholy force in UK underground extreme metal, securing the band a cult following in their home country and eventually a debut full-length release deal via Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo.

Since forming in early 2020, London’s Vacuous have been crafting a sound that is equal parts unhinged aggression and harrowing atmosphere. After cutting their teeth on a very lo-fi demo, the band truly came into their own with the “Katabasis” EP in November 2020, which was released via F H E D and secured them a spot in Cvlt Nation’s top 10 death metal releases of that year. With a sonic foundation built on the work of bands like Autopsy and Incantation, Vacuous draw from a wide range of sources, from the eerie dirge like pace of death/doom, the ferocity of punk and d beat to the blasting intensity of grindcore and powerviolence, all with the malicious intent of dragging the listener down with them into the depths of despair. With COVID-related restrictions easing, the band expanded to a 5 piece line up and began earning their stripes as a feral and pulverizing live act, displaying their malicious weaponed death metal across a a series of gigs around the UK. 2022 brought the release of their debut full length album “Dreams of Dysphoria”, released via Me Saco Un Ojo Records, Dark Descent Records and FHED, a release which saw the band expanding their sound into an all-engulfing display of dark, brooding and dissonant death metal, creating an oppressive and anguished atmosphere to underpin a cataclysmic and harrowing record with lyrics focusing on mental health, grief and other real life experiences. Setting them apart from the “cavernous” death metal micro genre, Vacuous’ songs are driven by off kilter, yet emotive melodies and mood-rich songwriting which burrows into the listener’s flesh making them feel the misery of life, while breaking bone and flaying skin with calculated bursts of extreme violence.

In 2023 the band then struck a deal with Sentient Ruin for a proper reissue of their now classic and iconic “Katabasis” MLP on limited colored and standard black vinyl editions, both available worldwide starting from June 2, 2023.














GAWTHROP: South Korean Sludge-Doom Miserists Issue Remastered Demos Compilation - Full Stream and Pre-Orders Available.

We’re proud to announce that Seoul-based South Korean sludge metal miserists Gawthrop join Sentient Ruin for "Deterioration", a glorious torment and misery-fucked 12" vinyl compilation of the band's first two incredible demo tapes (2019's "Demo" and 2022's "Jumbo"). A wretched amplifier worshiping monstrosity of complete antihuman heaviness, the glorious release channels the hate-drenched and bottom-caving megaton DOOM of legends like Corrupted, Meth Drinker, Nootgrush, HELL, Grief and Thorr's Hammer into six colossal slabs of pure earth-shaking, downtuned slow-crawling sonic torment that will stomp, crush and flatten the listener to death.

Hailing from the gutters of Seoul in South Korea, megaton sludge-doom miserists Gawthrop are purveyors of slow-crawling monolithic nightmares or unseen ugliness and heaviness. The obvious influences that shape the band’s sound like Eyehategod, Thorr’s Hammer, Corrupted, Noothgrush, Grief and Sunn O))) are a mere glimpse into the crushing misery and antihuman heaviness that the band unloads through its rumbling wall of amplifiers and its torturous songs filled with hatred and nihilism. What lies beyond the similarities and style tags is an imposing weapon of crushing terror using amplified distortion to entomb the listener into absolute dread.

A classic power trio on all of their current recorded output formed by Hyunwoong on guitar, Sunggun on bass and vocals, and Owen on drums (but now a quartet featuring bassist Minhwi after Sunggun moved to second guitar in 2022) , Gawthrop have made a name for themselves in their hometown of Seoul for being a merciless, crushing force of ultra-heaviness, with stacks of amplifiers lined up to flatten crowds, humongous downtuned guitar riffs chained together to deliver absolute death, telluric drums, violent vocals, and a general mood and atmosphere of total nihilism and abjection.

The band first emerged in 2019 with their debut demo tape, a staggering, imposing example of contemporary nihilistic crushing sludge especially reminiscent of the glory of 90’s early-to-mid career Corrupted. A split 7” with Drug Noose came in 2020 and the three-way “Far East Nihilism Front” split CD with Sithter and Misersplit followed in 2021, both displaying a more experimental and abstract sound, until a total return to form as seen on the debut demo was redelivered with the tectonic, earth-shaking heaviness of the second 2022 demo tape “Jumbo”, released on CD and tape by Cursed Monk Records and Bad Moon Rising 惡月上昇 respectively. This second demo and its uncompromising heaviness was the turning point which began to make the band’s name circulate beyond their home country and the far East, as the band soon made contact with Sentient Ruin to reissue both the demos as a 2023 12” vinyl compilation titled “Deterioration” containing the first demo on side A and the “Jumbo” demo on side B and with all tracks remastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios.

The remastered demos compilation “Deterioration" is slated for a May 26, 2023 release on vinyl and digital formats worldwide via Sentient Ruin.



ORDER OF DECAY: Mysterious UK Dark Death-Doom Entity Unveils Crushing Debut Album "Mortification Rites" - Track Unveiled at Metal Injection

We’re proud to finally announce that mysterious Scottish dark doomed death metal behemoths Order of Decay are about to emerge with their crushing debut album "Mortification Rites", a blackened necrotic specter of omnipotent, atmospheric, slow-moving death.

The colossal work has been teased by Metal Injection via an exclusive premiere of the song “Blood Libation”, remarking how the track is “is sure to drag your day way down into the blackest reaches of nothingness” - you can check out the track and feature HERE.

Humongous in its scope and vision, and inexorably annihilating, "Mortification Rites" sees the anonymous collective construct massive and enveloping visions of moribund decay, conjuring premonitions of total doom across a forty-six minute, eight-track death-devoured sonic abyss. The album's immense and lightless aura is brought forth by an onslaught crushing and dissonant guitars enshrouding a monolithic, telluric rhythm section. Keyboard-laden soundscapes and necrotic vocal proclamations feed its imposing aura further, shaping a sonic beast of truly otherworldly traits. The work falls beautifully within the framework of the recognizable and iconic contemporary UK death-doom and dark death metal scene, following excellently in the footsteps of bands like Indesinence, Esoteric, Pantheïst, Grave Miasma and Cruciamentum, with its dismal atmospherics and oppressive onslaughts of dark, dissonant crushing, yet melodic guitar work. But "Mortification Rites" also brings a whole new breadth of darkness and destruction to the platter, often branching out into the same realms of infernal sonic maelstrom we've seen from Finnish dark death metal acts like Desolate Shrine, Maveth and particularly Krypts, to bring forth its own vision of absolute, abyssal death metal bedlam. 

While anonymous, Order of Decay are no newcomers to the darkest death metal craft, and are formed by long time veterans of the UK underground death metal scene.

"Mortification Rites" is slated for a June 2 2023 worldwide release on LP, CD, MC and digital formats via Sentient Ruin with all formats now pre-orderable via all our channels


SHADOWS: Chilean Heavy Metal Cult Announces Masterful Debut Album "Out for Blood" - Track Premiered at Last Rites.

After the pure magic and fire of the "Into the Nightmare" precursor demo tape, we're thrilled to bring you its full-scale successor and evolution: the unrivaled debut album by Chilean heavy metal cult Shadows, scheduled for worldwide release on LP, CD, MC and digital formats on May 19 2023. Packing in 30 minutes of legendary songwriting and visionary revivalism "Out for Blood" take us back to a time, somewhere in the early 80's, when acts like Mercyful Fate, Satan, Death SS, Judas Priest, and Alice Cooper were laying the unforgettable foundations of what would soon become a generational, industry-changing phenomenon: the defining of heavy metal as we know it.

The masterful work has been anticipated by iconic underground metal blog LAST RITES, who in premiering the new opening track “Nightstalker” have remarked how “the greatest strength of the song–and this is the case with most of the record–is in its catchiness. Littered with hooks, Out For Blood truly captures the magic of the era it is striving for by unabashedly writing songs fit for 80’s hard rock radio play that still capture a spark in those with a curiosity for the forbidden and macabre.“ - You can check out the track and feature HERE.

A raging and undying fire of searing leads, thundering drums, spooky operatic vocals, ripping guitars, unforgettable hooks and outrageous transgression. With no hesitation or limits to its deathless imagination, Shadows has conceived a classic metal crucible of unparalleled wizardry and dominance, using familiar concepts borrowed from dark b-movies, old comic strips, occultism and esotericism to take the listener down a dark, left-hand path of cinematic storytelling, thrilling fantasy, dark impulses and transgressive paranoia. The ten tracks of "Out for Blood" display a breadth of tricks and expertise rarely seen at such an accomplished level in contemporary NWOTHM and classic metal acts, and this should come as no surprise knowing that Shadows mastermind and main songwriter John Shades (a pseudonym of Cristian Silva of Apostasy fame), has been shaping the pillars of true and untamed underground South American heavy metal for at least three decades. Using a mist of dark, keyboard-laden atmospheres, vorticose melodies and a dominating, dual attack of criss-crossing, blazing razor-sharp solos, Shades and his co-conspirators have unfolded a half-hour of absolute, boundless imagination, covering almost fifty years of heavy metal evolution and transformation, and delving deep into the primordial fabric of the genre's most defining traits, those of technical extremism, frantic intensity, and adrenaline-pumping darkness. A full-frontal assault on the senses where the limitless imagination of epic storytelling and of rare musicianship have converged in creating the ultimate homage, heirloom and celebration to the undying, sacred and eternal flame of heavy metal.

Chilean epic occult heavy metal enigma Shadows arose in 2021 around the flourishing heavy metal scene of Santiago, a place where by tradition heavy metal and dark occult crafts have always found fertile ground. Shadows emerged as the brainchild of local veteran and multiinstrumentalist Cristian Silva, the leader and founding member of legendary Chilean trash/speed metal cult Apostasy, a band he’s lead uninterruptedly through various decades, lineups and hiatuses since at least 1988, confirming his status of veteran and legend of his scene. Like for every true metalhead, thrash is however far from being Silva’s only love, far from. After reuniting Apostasy around 2018 and getting that project back off the ground, Silva eventually realized that his long running and decades old undying passion for earlier proto-heavy metal from the 70’s (Scoprions, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper) and the more occult and esoteric variants which arose shortly thereafter in the early 80’s (Mercyful Fate and King Diamond, Satan, Death SS, etc.) also needed an outlet, which he decided to materialize via a dedicated and separate new project. This lead him to create Shadows as a new solo outlet rounded out by various studio collaborators, also choosing the pseudonym John Shades to differentiate it from his tenure in Apostasy. The project materialized in 2021 with the self titled three-track demo, self-released digitally on the band’s Bandcamp as “My Shadow Will Rise” and later released physically as a limited edition cassette tape on Silva’s own label Cabalist records as “Into the Nightmare” as its new title, the demo’s final name. Because of Sentient Ruin’s and Apostasy pre-existing collaboration on the “Death Return” LP, Silva and the label also struck up a collaboration to release the “Into the Nightmare” demo tape in the Northern Hemisphere as well, and the release materliazed shortly afterward with brand new artwork and enhanced liner notes in early 2020.






VULVANIC: Peruvian Deranged Raw Black Metal Cult Issues Remastered Demos Compilation - Full Stream and Pre-Orders Available.

We’re proud to announce that Lima, Peru-based deranged raw black metal cult Vulvanic join Sentient Ruin under the black banner of total violence and depravity to bring you a much-needed reissue of their two long sold out self-released demo tapes, 2019's "ブラックエンジェルの色合い" ("Scent of Black Angel”), and "秘密の夜の殺人者" ("Ripper's Secret Night of Murder") remastered from the raw mixes by Will Killingswroth at Dead Air Studios, and graphically re-envisioned by the Violent Visual Shock art studio into a horrific forty-minute 12'LP and cassette tape compilation of violent, sadistic sonic abandon.

Formed by current and former members of Evil Spectrum, Tenebrion, Sordid, Obscure Evil, and Purgatorio, and infamous in their home country for erratic and unpredictable live shows entailing violence, butchered animals, sadism and self-harm, the rogue blood horde known as Vulvanic are creators of a demented and diseased form of schizoid raw black metal infested with punk, noise, and derailing psychedelia, the depravity and repulsiveness of which has few comparisons even in the darkest and most tabu dungeons of the underground. Utterly deranged and horrifically disfigured, Vulvanic's music is even difficult to parce in its incomprehensible deformity, rising from a death-scarred dungeon and delivering hallucinatory and stomach churning visions of violence, squalor, sadism and depravity at a level unthinkable for any barely held together mind.

Their crippled and spastic audio-visual syncretism unites various deviancies from around the globe, particularly in the evident hardcore and raw punk aspect predominant in their music and reminiscent of transgressive cults from Japan like G.I.S.M., Zouo, G.A.T.E.S. and Zeni Geva, and inevitably also of the historic vanguard of Japanese devilish metal, namely Sabbat, Evil, Sigh, Abigail, and Manierism, as well as Japanese transgressive art and visuals and performance art as a whole. Other influences plaguing the band's deranged and putrid sound include of course the progenitors of pestilent emaciated black metal from Scandinavia (Darkthrone, Ildjarn), as well as infernal legends from the later period like Katharsis, Vlad Tepes and Negative Plane. The final touches to Vulvanic's catastrophic repulsiveness are wholly intrinsic, coming from a place of personal inner torment, nihilism and self-loathing that has to be endured in its most violent and shocking manifestations to be even remotely fathomed. 

Vulvanic are a band that since its burdensome inception have always lived on the edge, using their crippled and disfigured music as a trial to test the limits of creativity and expression. Closely entwined with the Peruvian Violent Visual Shock label and art studio, Vulvanic can be considered an audio-visual and performance art act as a whole, in a manner similar to what were defining and pioneering shocking acts like G.I.S.M., Swans, Skinny Puppy, GG Allin and Throbbing Gristle. Indeed, the band shares a close affinity to the Japanese extreme music and performance art underground, in part due to the strong Japanese culture and influence which is still well established in Peru, but mostly due to the musical influences that have helped shape the band’s sound like G.I.S.M. etc. The result is a multicultural audiovisual cross-genre and cross-boundary disfiguration, a unique blend of styles, visuals and influences that has led to the creation of the infamous first 2019 demo "ブラックエンジェルの色合い" also known as "Scent of Black Angel", and the subsequent "秘密の夜の殺人者" 2020 demo tape also known as "Ripper's Secret Night of Murder", both of which were repackaged and reinvisioned as a 12" vinyl and tape compilation remastered by Will Killingsworth and released in 2023 by Sentient Ruin.

CONCILIUM: Portuguese Black Metal Death-Cult Announce Immense Third Album "Sky Bvrial" - Track Premiered at Last Rites.

Welcome to the Sky Burial (Tibetan: བྱ་གཏོར་), the ancient Himalayan ritual burial dating back to centuries of the Tibetan Buddhism tradition of taking the bodies of the deceased amongst the highest peaks to be dismembered and consumed at sacred burial grounds by vultures and other scavenging animals, and then dissolved by the high altitude elements, or as the tradition states, to be returned to the sky. What may seem a brutal or savage practice to western eyes in reality is a revered and elitarian burial in ancient Himalayan culture, and this concept borrowed by Portuguese black metal nekromancers Concilium for their immense third offering "Sky Bvrial" has laid the foundations for an absolute beast of an album and for one of the most otherworldly and death-scarred extreme metal releases of the year.

Foreshadowing the album’s gruesome birth is an exclusive advance track premiere of the track “From the Moon to the Mountain” by reputable underground metal blog Last Rites, who in introducing the death-crushing track have remarked how “Sky Bvrial, feels like an embrace of the crude death worship of Beherit reaching for a further, more reverent understanding of the violence and transcendence of what we so arrogantly call The End.“ - you can checkout the track and their feature HERE.

Truly immense in its scope and vision, just like the death ritual it recounts and evokes, "Sky Bvrial" channels the omnipotence and darkness of death through a majestic lens of transcendence, ritualism and contemplative reverence toward the power of nature and of the immortality of ancient lore. The nauseating stench of death emanates from every knit and fabric of this beastly record, as the black flame of highly atmospehric sepulchral black metal bands like Demoncy, Teitanblood, and Beherit is re-ignited to conjure visions of a churning, monstrous vortex of rotting dismembered flesh levitating towards heaven, and taken skyward to be returned to the afterlife by massive carnivorous scavenging birds. A truly unparalleled and moving listening experience conjured through seven primeval slabs of merciless, crushing neckromantik black metal counterbalanced by tremendously enveloping sepulchral atmospherics and contemplative dirges of transcendence. 

While a new band, Concilium are bastions of the Portuguese musical underworld, with main member/songwrtier N. and collaborators Vulturius and Occelensbrigg having years of experience in shaping their country’s small but thriving underground to what it is today, through various campaigns and collaborations over the years that have established them as corner pieces to their scene across the rise and fall of many obscure Portuguese black and death metal bands, existing and defunct, old and new. N. forged his talents and visions in such Portuguese aural plagues like Summon and Hate Propaganda, and Concilium is his brainchild and outlet to an inner underworld dominated by hallucinations of finality, agony, and hopelessness. Handling all songwriting, composition, artwork (under the Belial Necroarts banner), and guitars and vocals during recording, N. is then joined in the project’s final recording stages of the studio setting by Vulturius handling drums (Irae, Kommando Baphomet, Necrobode, Morte Incandescente and many more) and by Occelensbrigg on bass, thus completing the circle of Concilium’s sound: a nightmarish trip into the pits of hell where the historic sounds of violent and apocalyptic bands like Pseudogod, Blasphemy, Proclamation and Beherit are deconstructed and pulverized, whipped into a new spectral and decaying shape by heavy doses of decrepit and agonizing raw/depressive black metal and submerged into aphotic and subterranean realms with a masterful texturing of sulphureous atmospheres and diseased esoteric dirges.

V:XII: One-Man Swedish Black/Death Industrial Adversary Announces Crushing Sophomore Album "LU-CIPHER-SABBATEAN" - Track Premiered at ReGen Magazine.

We’re proud to announce “LU-CIPHER-SABBATEAN”, the blood-freezing second full-length album from Swedish black/death industrial beast V:XII (pronounced and read "Five Twelve") a magistral work which adds a new urgency and dimension to the infamous underworld of Scandinavian evil martial dark ambient/industrial made famous by the legendary legacy of Cold Meat Industry and affiliated acts like Brighter Death Now, Mz.412, etc., and later, by its contemporary bastions like Nordvarg and Trepaneringsritualen.

The release has been presented by legendary industrial outlet ReGen Magazine via an exclusive track premiere of the song “Cyclic Saturnial”, stating that “drawing sonically on the traditions laid down by Cold Meat Industry and affiliated acts, the track is an aural representation of the theory of reptilian beings enslaving humans through the subjugation of rational thought and instilling mass psychosis over many eons – a conspiratorial subject that echoes the wider scope of the LU-CIPHER-SABBATEAN album’s themes of religious and ritualistic power leading to a world drowned in darkness and dread.” - you can check out their premiere and stream the song HERE.

This crushing new opus is a grueling listening experience that for thirty six minutes imposes complete submission upon the listener, drawing them into a wretched realm of majestic, deconstructed electronics and into an infernal dimension of utter darkness and dread. Perverse, violent and hallucinatory in its every aspect, “LU-CIPHER-SABBATEAN” conjures a lightless abyss of paranoia and ritualized insanity, as it unfolds an ominous concept on the conspiratorial mind devolved into to its worst and most deteriorated form, the religious one. A sense of grim solemnity transpires from the album's ritualistic and almost liturgic pace, evoking a seething feeling of absolute evil as widescreen moments of abysmal dark ambience are violently lacerated by violent, spasmodic proclamations and by an onslaught of cold, bludgeoning martial rhythms and disembodied incantations.

The dark and obscure post-industrial bedlam of V:XII (pronounced and read “five twelve” - from Romans 5:12 of the New Testament) was first conceived in 2018 by long time Swedish experimental musician Daniel Jansson (also behind bands like Culted, Deadwood, Keplers odd etc), as a means to expand his dark sonic expression with a more beat-oriented and menacing approach to the Black/Death Industrial sub-genre compared to the more abstract and lengthy format of Deadwood. Taking inspiration from everything from Black Metal to Industrial bands spanning from Ministry, NIN and Skinny Puppy to Mz.412, Brighter Death Now and Trepaneringsritualen, Jansson started working on a new sonic canvas to summon an abhorrent and bludgeoning post-industrial specter of wretched incantations, crushing martial rhythmics and diseased ritualistic atmospheres. These bleak and perverse post-industrial conjurations conceived by Jansson soon began to assume a life of their own, deserving a dedicated project, and within a short period of time V:XII had became the main focus of Jansson. Thematically, V:XII examines and dissects both occult and political conspiracy theories, with an emphasis on the religious aspect of the conspiratorial mind. And with this conceptual backdrop to enhance and exalt the malevolence of the music V:XII started to grow into the entity it was meant to become. A punishing and disembodied sonic experience that must be suffered through to be appreciated. An auditory attack on the senses that bleeds you dry. The first album “Rom, Rune and Ruin” was released in 2020 and the self-released “CTRL” EP followed suit in 2021. V:XII’s monstrous new full-length album “LU-CIPHER-SABBATEAN” will see its wretched birth on Sentient Ruin Laboratories on April 21 2023 worldwide.





CH'AHOM: German Black/Death Metal Cult Issues Demos Cassette Tape Compilation - Full Stream and Pre-Orders Available Now. Debut EP and Full-Length Album Looming for Mid and Late 2023.

We’re proud to announce that German ritualistic black/death metal warlords Ch'ahom officially join Sentient Ruin, and to celebrate this unholy alliance we're proud to bring you the "Camazotz Cult" limited edition career-encompassing cassette tape compilation of the band's entire discography to this day, spanning all the band's long sold out demo tapes from 2016 to 2021, repackaged and remastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios into a glorious one-hour long onslaught of total sonic savagery.

This vast and comprehensive restored retrospective both anticipates Ch'ahom's new era forthcoming (with the imminent release of their first official EP and first official full-length album which will follow shortly thereafter) and revisits the origins and existence so far of one of the most barbaric and animalistic entities to have appeared in the German extreme metal underground in recent years. The eighteen bludgeoning tracks here presented show us the band developing their sound and concept over a five-year span of cryptic obscurity, reworking the legendary warcraft of bestial black/death/grind legends like Beherit, Sadogoat, Blasphemy, Sarcófago and Proclamation into an occult and esoteric canvas exploring exotic ancient war cults and death rituals from pre-Columbian South and Central America. The end result is a gruesome terrorscape in which ancient visions of violence, ritualism, mysticism and bloodshed are joined into a ruthless aural assault of total black/death chaos and destruction. The feral aura and lawless primitivism seen on these tracks is further exalted by a raw and blown out production quality which has given a unique and appropriate character to the music through a methodic approach clearly descended from a punk and DIY culture which has vastly enhanced and characterized the superb vision and uniqueness behind the cult of Ch'ahom and its uncompromising craft.

Tracks 1-7 from the "The Raid of the Tzitzimime" demo tape (2016)
Tracks 8-10 from the "Oblation" demo tape (2016)
Tracks 11-13 from the "Path to Ixtab" demo tape (2018)
Tracks 14-18 from the "Lustfully Sinning for Death Metal" demo tape (2021) 

"Camazotz Cult" is slated for an April 7 2023 official release date worldwide via Sentient Ruin, and both digital and cassette tape formats are now pre-order able via all our channels.

The origins of Ch'ahom can be traced as far back as 2016, when the band begun issuing a steady string of cryptic demo tapes in the German underground, up until 2021. During this time frame the band had displayed a blown out, raw and feral sound clearly worshipping bands like Von, Sadomator, Sadogoat, Beherit and other similar primitive black/death gods. These demos captured the eye of Sentient Ruin who made contact with the band right when a change in their sound and songwriting was happening and the ground for a glorious and genre-defying debut album was being prepared. Perfect timing. While the tracks from all these earlier demos are now remastered by Sentient Ruin for the 2023 “Camazotz Cult“ cassette tape restropective compilation here presented, the once simple, short and fast songs from the band’s early days are meanwhile giving way to new compositions stretching out into atmospheric lengths and being punctuated and exalted by the unique technicality, atmospheres and more slowed down paces reminiscent of iconic US and Finish Death Metal bands like Morbid Angel, Time Ghoul, Infester, Demilich, and Abhorrence, creating a masterful symbiosis between the animalistic violence from their origins and the band’s newfound sense of atmosphere and evocative musical storytelling of their present incarnation.

Far from ending there, Ch'ahom's music has begun showcasing also marked prog influences derived from the band's appreciation of 70's English bands like Yes and Camel. This multilayered evolution is now creating a sound that appears vast, relentless, and frenzy-like, almost bordering on insanity, as will be showcased on their upcoming mid-2023 debut EP “Ts'ono'ot”, a glorious, ten-minute single track prelude to the majestic carnage lurking ahead later in the year with the advent of their official debut full-length album for Sentient Ruin,“Knots of Abhorrence”. This outreach toward more complex and unpredictable composition is completed and complemented by the band's long running theme and subject matter, offering a glimpse into a parallel dimension beyond the purely musical material itself: lyrical themes, concepts, and aesthetics dealing with different prehispanic cultures, their rituals and their art. With their music dowsed in magick, blood, and violence, Ch'ahom try to establish a connection to a subconscious horror we all face in our lives, still to this day, that has been a driving force behind many mythical and mystical traditions that have originated throughout the centuries all around the globe. The accumulation of these influences make this Essen, Germany-based horde a far more complex and thought-provoking entity than the average goat-worshipping black/death band most of us are used to being accustomed with. Ch'ahom are a nightmare simulation, a terror emanating from deep below, screaming from the caverns in the earth in which humanity has hid for centuries from the powers beyond our rational understanding, emanating from the crevices in our super-ego that reveal a direct pathway to the urges we repress. Ch'ahom are the opposite of meditation, an endless onslaught of thoughts, wishes, dreams, fears, impossible to shut out, an overwhelming and maddening samsara.