A fresh portal summoned toward the stilled must of auld coffin air this debut full-length album from Portuguese death metal duo CHAPEL OF SAMHAIN channels near-death for the sake of studied embodiment of morbidity, a deconstruction of fear and faith down to bones and dust. Presented as the way in, the unassuming and unforeseeable passage-through a moss-dripping door to the great beyond ‘Black Onyx Cave‘ speaks to a soul in observance slowly passing from its flesh-vessel toward acceptance of the eternal dark. Suffocating and merciless in its ‘old school’-minded impurity this album is readied in a pure underground but entirely pro result, fully formed and bleeding of its knack for cavernous rhythms and a broad enough range of experiences to warrant a well rounded yet briefly stated debut album.

Though I don’t have any exacting details and cannot be entirely sure beyond logical observation and process of elimination Chapel of Samhain assumedly formed between Angel-0 (Velório) and possibly vocalist Pedra (Grog) both of whom are members of Nethermancy at some point in the last several years. Reading between the lines their approach was for the sake of doing something different from their other projects which was yet ‘old school’, embodying the spirit of morbid death metal and its infinite variations. A first pass through their efforts gains entrance to the sightless pits and fatal caverns of what I’d consider blackened ‘old school’ death metal where the blasphemic gloom of early United States bestial death metal (not war metal, mind you) meets harrowing doom-steeped death metal which is naturally cavernous but not limited to one point of atmospheric venture. The product of their efforts is a journey into death, horrified exploration which grants an increasingly slow spiral toward what lies beyond.

My first thoughts collected in quick association upon previewing “Pale” and “Charnel” up front amounted to something like Demoncy‘s atmospheric adjacency to Incantation or the early ways of Acheron infused with the punishing aggression of ‘Dawn of Possession‘ and yes, that includes use of keyboards and doom metal derived movement. This is of course only one facet of this impressive, organically achieved debut LP which might invoke the fatal morbidity of early Samael one moment (“Delirium”) and touch upon Asphyx ‘The Rack‘ the next (“Flesh”) but overall we get something which is primally sourced rather than flatly primitive, as there is an arcane intellect behind every piece which has its own level of simple Eldritch allure and rhythmic depth. Granted this is a short album for this style at only just ~33 minutes though I believe this serves the band well in making an easily approachable yet varietal first impression which develops its depth within repeat listens. In fact I’d suggest the final two pieces in the running order, “Portal” b/w “Ether” are inarguably where ‘Black Onyx Cave‘ finally comes to life, reveals its action and full oeuvre between their interconnected grand finale statement and their depiction of death as transcendence.

When the final piece on a debut album still manages to reveal new points of interest within their style it does well to suggest that this Chapel of Samhain idea has legs, that they’ll have more places to go and things to say in the future even when sticking to this darker shade of primal death metal. This’d kept me listening, hunting for smaller details and their fleeing impact as I’d familiarized myself with the ride of it all. The experience began amounting to a substantive “riff album” experience to some degree as the hunt for stylistic references faded in mind but I’d ultimately found this to be an experience in general, a complete thought in passage from life to death’s beyond and an effective illustration of this idea overall; The succinct yet all-killer impact of ‘Black Onyx Cave‘ wasn’t a hundred percent nailed into mind from the outset but the more time I put into revealing its layers the more I’d appreciated how well they’d tempered many classic sensibilities into one short record without losing the punishing focus of their work, all of which is well above average. A high recommendation.

---