Achieving a rare state of one-pointedness in collective generation from below Portland, Oregon-based death metal quartet Witch Vomit brave the precipice of heat death as they peer into the vast and untapped pools of possessed proto-melodic black/death metal, siphoning the bleak romanticist glow of the past into the recesses of their third full-length album. In pursuit of a canonical linkage rather than a forced juxtaposition of forms ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ finds these now weathered fellowes marrying dark melodic advent with primordial death metal traction without losing any relevance to their travels thus far. In pivoting into still classicist yet unexpectedly traversed realms for a brief yet finely crafted expedition these folks rediscover a well buried, long-lost sect of morbid and dramatic death metal which they’ve taken notable command of herein.

Witch Vomit formed way back in 2012 as a duo featuring vocalist/guitarist T.T. (Torture Rack, ex-Dagger Lust) and drummer V.V. (Apraxic) and by the time they’d released their first official EP (‘The Webs of Horror‘, 2014) they’d added bassist J.G., aiming for a classic Stockholm charged death metal sound at the time. By the end of 2015 the trio had recorded their debut LP (‘A Scream From the Tomb Below‘, 2016) and at the time the gist of their sound had spliced the raw buzzsaw attack of Scandinavian death metal with shades of early Morbid Angel and Immolation. They’d moved quickly from that point of pivot, signing to 20 Buck Spin, released a fine mLP in the interim and eventually added a second guitarist, C.L. to the fold essentially sealing the line-up. I’d probably detailed some of this history when reviewing their second LP (‘Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave‘, 2019) at the time of release but the gist of it is that they’d become a well-known addition to the PNW death metal phenomenon at that point and a fixture in the supposed ‘new old school’ death metal headspace per their clear inspiration taken from the most classic era of death metal. In the past I’d have compared their sound to bands like Funebrarum and Rottrevore per their more gutturally achieved vocals and the combination of several classic forms feeding into their sound. Knowing this general evolution of their sound provides some but not all context as to what change has occurred here on LP number three.

The thrashing heap of ‘Altars of Madness‘-era riffcraft and the deeply bellowed abstractions of ‘Dawn of Possession‘ are still secure within the genetic code of Witch Vomit today as the twitching musculature of ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ is still propelled by the blasting, wrathful energy of late 80’s ’til early 90’s death metal and its thoroughly trained hand. I purposefully stretch that timeline back to its primal interpretation for the sake of this album generally resembling the United States death metal impetus and how it’d inspired Swedish death metal before those interpretations cycled back overseas in the mid-90’s. Here the suggestion is superficial to start wherein we get a heavy whiff of early Dissection from the aesthetic of this album and compositions which echo Necrophobic‘s debut in their death-thrashing interpretations of melodicism which gives just a moment or two to develop each idea to brink of sophistication and that breakthrough moment may not repeat (“Blood of Abomination“) in the ‘pop metal’ way that we’d find in the mid-to-late 90’s melodic death tradition. The true median one could draw up with this in mind is a direct comparison to Side A of ‘Splenium for Nyktophobia‘ from thee underrated Uncanny where the roots and the future melodicism of death metal were both highly visible. This is an incomplete hunt for precedence and doesn’t address the Immolation (or, Infester) edged aggression of Witch Vomit‘s current sound and for that result we’d need to dig toward the late 90’s USDM underground for Abominant‘s ‘The Way After‘ where the full circle should generally click in mind.

Brutality, chaos magickry and the shared host. — Though the first three pieces which introduce ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ do well to suggest the scope of their exploration here on this brief yet impactful ~31 minute record it is “Serpentine Shadows” which grabs and holds the attention as the longest chunk of song and with an introductory riff which sounds fresh off a record like ‘Abject Offerings‘ to start. For my own taste the thrill of this revelation was quickly more redeeming than its dissection into pieces but nonetheless this particular song hones in on the general folly of Swedish death metal as a whole beyond 1992 and corrects the path back to primal death metal which is inherently tuneful, expressive but not entirely overtaken with power metallic lustre or contrapuntal wilding. This is where the general admixture of ‘Dawn of Possession‘-meets-‘The Somberlain‘ can well enough act as the effective shorthand for Witch Vomit‘s breakthrough here on this album wherein the sophisticated dramatism of emergent melodic death is balanced out by the brutal subversion of ominous and atmospheric movement. On the other hand I’d quickly found these ideas began to call for some manner of repetition and variation as each arrived upon an effective thought or device before simply passing along to the next without juicing the moment. I’d been left wanting another ten minutes in development of the thrashing clip of “Decaying Angelic Flesh” and the even more kicking “Endarkened Spirits” both of which only appeared to launch before cutting out.

Between engineering and mixing from Evan Mersky‘s at Red Lantern Studios and mastering from Dan Lowndes‘ Resonance Sound Studio the trick of this recording and capturing the right sound must’ve been getting that crystal dusted drum sound, managing something realistic yet cold a la Toneshed Studio’s remaster of ‘The Nocturnal Silence‘ (Unisound Studio’s version a few years later is pristine but, loud) where the pocket of the drums at full action is still the major thunder which overtakes as it sees fit and never becomes swallowed by the dual rhythm guitar tones and their panned levels. This leaves the space organic yet unreal, partaking in the exaggerated reverberation of space without obfuscating any of the performances. Again, the drum sound is really the hinge point for the authenticity felt here and nailing this, in render and the actual performances, helps elevate the immersive value of the ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ experience. How they’ve woven the guttural creeped-out vocals into the mix without obliterating the nuance of the guitar work is equally impressive, a point I’d particularly felt in the midst of the title track/closer (“Funeral Sanctum”) as it runs through the paces and growls low and slow within its final eclipsing momentum.

While staring down the David Parland-worthy cut of “Black Wings of Desolation” it begins to feel like ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ has rooted itself in its middle third and begun to make a case for this venture as more than an amalgam of notable guitar ideas. While I wouldn’t consider this an entirely cohesive vision so much as a flood of ideas which are cut down to their most potent voice and given a bit of a USDM hammer to add to the authenticity of the moment. From my point of view this replicates the excitement of demo-level death metal of a certain era where the ideas were flowing rather than desperately spiking toward one particular niche, the variations appeared endless and the only limitation for many was essentially skill. Point made, I suppose, as we step toward the endpoint of this flow-state with the experted riffcraft of “Dominion of a Darkened Realm”, a tarantella to start and a representative piece overall with some Schuldiner-esque leads and tuneful waltz toward the spiking speed of aforementioned “Endarkened Spirits”.

My first impression of ‘Funeral Sanctum‘ was slightly underwhelmed in preview and primarily for the sake of it being quite short and essentially built in exploration of nuanced movements, a bigger paradigm shift than one’d expect coming off of the very straightforward chunking pits of ‘Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave‘ b/w its follow-up mLP ‘Abhorrent Rapture‘ (2021) which’d appeared to be moving in maybe a more doomed direction at that point. By keeping the bulk of their idea-rich work here down to the most essential impact of each statement Witch Vomit actually create a more repeatable record, one which almost forces successive listens for the sake of picking up on fresh details as they pass by quickly with a dramatic but brisk intention. You’ll have to weigh the value of potency versus lightened immerse here but this was probably the only way to balance the bigger gestures of melodic blackened death with punishing, thrashed-at movement otherwise. Of course this sound could and should be expanded upon as at present this feels like an overloaded mLP for the ages and for my own taste one of the better releases from the band since their first LP hit out of nowhere back in 2016. I’ve had such a good time delving into the details of this one I’d just as well say hey, don’t change a thing another album or two like this would be legendary. A high recommendation.

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