Sunken bullet-deep in the psyche and manifesting as a fortitude gained by way of grief and loss, the revelation of morbidity is empowerment for those who respect their place beneath the wheel rather than attempt to wrestle free of its slow-crushing turn. Iquique, Chile-based death metal quartet ROTTEN TOMB not only embrace death’s pulverization but once again embody the moment that it arrives to soothe the suffering of the wretched afflicted on this second full-length album. We succumb to the coming ‘The Relief of Death‘ here in maniac waves, suffocated beneath the monstrous death metal violence within and given shape by existentially questioning doom and coldly struck brutality for a classics-minded but outrageously vented maul front to back. A truly deranged series of events unfold here in the form of death magick rituals, psychic tortures, and a conscious questioning of reality beyond of the surety of death as these folks uphold the murderous momentum of their debut.

Rotten Tomb formed circa 2016 in craft of death metal inspired by the morbid psychosis and atmospheric extensions of the classics of the early 90’s as well as their own Chilean history of ‘old school’ death metal munitions. This soon led to demo tapes, an EP, and work that’d slowly but surely worked up to their very high quality debut full-length album (‘Visions of a Dismal Fate‘, 2022) which I reviewed with highest possible marks and included at #1 on my Top 100 Albums of 2022. That debut is a point of perfection for my own taste in terms of death metal’s truly punishing and morbid atmosphere realized without cutting the focus on riffcraft. The cavernous reach of east coast United States death metal of the classic era and how this’d translated abroad is suggested as part of their goal in the notes for that debut which included ‘Dawn of Possession‘ from Immolation and ‘Lost Paradise‘ from Paradise Lost. Generally speaking any fan of early Incantation as well as contemporaries via (early) Cenotaph (Mexico), and the heavier guttural bursts of Gorement for that matter, should appreciate that debut and its idiosyncratic render. From my point of view their sound was effective enough and developed over a long enough span of time that whatever they did next would be hard to fuck up using that framework and general identity as a basis for creation.

‘The Relief of Death‘ is a true follow-up to ‘Visions of a Dismal Fate‘ in the sense that the intended style, attack and personae of Rotten Tomb are intact while their sound has been tweaked slightly to a somewhat more “clean” render on par with the atmospheric gloom of groups like Krypts and Grave Miasma which are fundamentally related to the species of death metal these folks’ve always embodied. As we strike into the opening instrumental waltz of “Dissonant Death Ritual” and the howling doom of opener “Oblivion” it is clear that we are getting work from (most of) the same hands this time around but with some changes made to the sound design more than anything else; As it turns out they included Skullfukk (Invincible Force, Ancient Crypts) on session drums for this album and in some respects this fundamentally changes up the sound of the band and not only in terms of production values. This immediately takes away some of that strange ex-thrasher character that was on that first album’s drum performances, it was the thing that made it kind of weird, but completely rad for my own taste. That said what they trad in ‘old school’ rep points they trade for a high level of precision. While I wouldn’t say that Rotten Tomb have drastically changed as a band you can definitely feel that there is someone else in the drum throne this time around and overall the riffcraft here feels as if shot directly down the path the first album’d blazed.

Guitarist/vocalist Deathbringer‘s (Atomicide) snarling, animalistic roar is still one of the most effective characteristics of Rotten Tomb‘s sound in this band not only their declarative enunciation and its clashing layers but the unreal layer of aggression it offers to standout songs like “Psychopathic World” (see also: “Let the Death Take Us”) where the wandering leads and eerie atmospheric pulse of their movement might’ve been enough but the barking madness set atop it allows for the vocals to feel like a putrid grand-standing declaration amidst the storm they are creating. While the effect is obscurant and over the top that is squarely what ‘evil’ aggressive death metal should aim for from my point of view where there is no necessary separation needed between brutality and atmospheric reach. The first three pieces get this volatile, hazed-over sensation across well enough as Side A begins its descent into increasingly doomed, slow-burning territory song after song. I wouldn’t suggest that these folks are mid-paced by any means but that a lot of their best riffs and overall action averages out, riding on the edge of dramatic shifts in pace and/or a dynamic vision of death/doom metal.

Just as the threat of resting on that rotten, hellish atmosphere begins to linger “In the Last Hours”, and especially the extended instrumental of “Rumble for the Cult of Death”, take us one step lower into a pit of warbling dive-bombed leads and buzzing doom metal fed riffs. There we finally get the broader reach of their style in well-contained pieces with the former being well in line with the harried chaotic touch of the opening song(s) but dragging out its heavier death-doom bellowing to great effect. The important thing is that they’ve traveled somewhere, generated a horrified atmosphere within the first half of ‘The Relief of Death‘ and when the basslines from “Rumble for the Cult of Death” hit it should be the strongest indication yet that Rotten Tomb have much more to show on this sophomore album that may or may not be surprising in its reach. Granted a six minute instrumental in the middle of a ~45 minute album isn’t going to please every fan out there but this should be well enough in the realm of anyone chasing after that old ‘Onward to Golgotha‘ type mutation.

Side B begins with “Funeral Urns” one of the more straight forward songs on the album per its use of tremolo picked riffs and general cadence of its riffs at a jogging-fast pace. If you’re listening on CD this shouldn’t feel like a huge interruption so much as a continued stretch through the mid-portion of the album though some of the riffs and general movement on that particular song feel overtly simple and quickly ease on the detailed tension available to most of the pieces before it. They’ve not hit the reset button for the second half of the album but the thing to take note of this deep in the second half of this album is some manner of tonal shift which is no longer volatile but rather lumbering with tragedian disdain, the aforementioned “Let the Death Take Us” being a fine example of both a return to the rabidity of the opening numbers but also a different tone in their delivery. The straight forward early 90’s feeling of the band extends into “Illusions of a False World” which includes guitarist Alejandro Cruz (Suppression, Ancient Crypts) who collaborates on vocals and not just a guitars as far as I can tell. This lends an Martin Van Drunen type rasp in co-delivery though this creates a cacophony thanks to the echoing backward effects applied. Overall I wouldn’t say there was as much to write about on the second half of ‘The Relief of Death‘ that breaks away from what’d been achieved in the first five or so songs, though the full experience still reads as consistent for the majority of its duration.

While I don’t think ‘The Relief of Death‘ has necessarily outdone Rotten Tomb‘s debut in terms of conveying a wholly unique, unexpected item that’d be par for the course with sophomore releases. There is no grand attempt to do anything drastically different or to one-up the previous release so much as an attempt to polish certain aspects of their sound and recreate their knack for morbid, thrillingly brutal and atmospheric death metal within the realm of ‘old school’ but not constricted forms. There is a muddiness, a gritty yet glowing pile of nuclear waste atop this work that is suitable in terms of presenting a darker, haze-ridden second LP and I’d found the cover artwork from Daniel Jopia (Grotesque Art) embodied the feeling and the murk of the experience well enough. The skull-rattling nox and ugliness of their brand of death metal still suits my own taste per its dynamic yet volatile concoct and as such I’d found this album nearly as much of a thrill as the last. A very high recommendation.

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