Hailing beneath the sadistic gaze of a red-stained sky the crucifixion of Portland, Oregon-based death metal trio Thanamagus begins in full force as their debut mLP ‘Lie in Wait‘ shapes meandering forms and dust-coughing atmosphere from uber-traditional elite death metal hands. Gnashing like the possessed and thrust down its perilous corridor growling, our foray into this realm is brief but mortifying to even the thickest skull as their roughly twenty minute hammer strikes down to the bone and whips bloody mayhem throughout. Evolved in placement and enriched by strong sonic depth this’ll be thrilling enough monstrosity for those seeking the true third-gen death metal experience in the hands of nowadays pros with fine taste in unholy riffcraft.

Thanamagus formed as a trio which featured drummer Charles Koryn (Ascended Dead, et al.) and guitarist Nick Alosio in support of guitarist/vocalist and main composer Jonathan Quintana who is best known for his recent contributions to Decrepisy and Hell Strike debuts but also live feature in several related Portland area death metal bands. Of course none of their material will sound green or under-developed as Koryn and Quintana have known each other for at least a decade and have been in several groups together, maintaining some of that familiar chemistry per their shared goal of distinct and uncompromised ‘old school’ death metal in a brutal-yet-thrashing style. I guess there are a couple ways we see classics minded musicians approaching the craft, some only ever know or care about the old ways and others treat primitivity as a stepping stone elsewhere, and in this case the forms of ‘Lie in Wait‘ suggest folks expressly interested in the lifer approach to perfecting the abstract art of the 3-5 minute death metal song.

Their general modus is stated as taking late 80’s thrash and death/thrash metal influences and honing them down to what they’ve described as something similar to the Kreator and Dark Angel inspired death metal of the early 90’s though they’d likewise point to the twisted riffing and percussive brutality of Insanity as well as the savaged grooves of early Immolation being a main feature. This naturally points us in the direction of something like Massacra‘s ‘Enjoy the Violence‘ though I’d redirect the keen-eared ‘old school’ death metal listener toward the realm of early Florida death metal-level brutality, taking more than a step beyond the first Deicide record in terms of their percussive tip when the action was at its hottest-flung speed on their impressive ‘Incorporeal Passage‘ (2019) demo tape. This isn’t exactly what we get on this mLP but it isn’t that far off, either.

While it is an important part of Thanamagus‘ sound that they take key reference from bands that’d split the difference between ‘Altars of Madness‘ and the next generation beyond (see: Altars, Fallen Christ) it’d be too big an oversight to not mention the atmospheric transitions which phase in and out of each song which are in stark contrast to their fiery action. To make this dynamic work without holding up the line most pieces end on a fading movement, such as opener “Severed Spiritual Limbs”, while also featuring slower doomed drifts to butt up against the raw, blitzing speed of their attack. For the die-hard classicist none of this will feel like a step too far outside the nowadays box and at least on my part the sensorial approach to atmosphere helps keep the brief but densely stated record from being a cold and clinical blast through a high riff-count.

And that first piece is just their starting point, my favorite piece on the EP, “Unburied Whispers”, has this incredible ‘Hammer of the Gods‘-era Angelcorpse feeling to its attack which is helped along considerable by the precision Koryn provides both as a drummer and engineer before handing it to Damien Herring (Subterranean Watchtower Studio) for the mix and master. The sense of space for the recording is crisp but not enormous beyond the resonance of the guitars to start, by the time the slower doomed sections of “Unburied Whispers” allow for some room we get a sense of just how eruptive the drums are set as a clobbering-upward force right in the midst. All is caked in smoke and ash one’d expect from an elite death metal perspective but I’d appreciated that the bass guitar (per Vince Blank) gets at least some roll and rumble a few steps behind the focus on the rhythm guitars.

Once we hit “Lowermost Dispiritedness” the darker thrash needling I’d kept anticipating beyond the opener hadn’t necessarily arrived but I get the sense that what Thanamagus are doing here is honing in on a tempered set of qualities which they can form into something coherent, trying to avoid something ambitious beyond its means. We do hear the late 80’s side of their interest in small bursts, such as the intro to “Beneath Despondent Ash” but it isn’t as if there is a gaping hole in any of their work, all of it mercilessly fumed-forth with heretical energy. From my point of view there is still plenty of room to grow into this ‘ready refined sound. The lack here is arguably the captivity of the audience which pulls them into scene, I’m not saying write the next “Chapel of Ghouls” but the structure of the oldest classics and their songs that stick aren’t here and this’d be the keystone to throttle their work beyond this above-average standard set. Otherwise the sound, the riffs, and the right attack are all there and impressed each time I picked this one up. A moderately high recommendation.

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