Now four albums deep into their post-2010’s resurrection beyond a late 90’s demise Logroño, Spain-based death metal quintet APOSENTO were on a decent enough run for their first three albums but with ‘No Safe Haven‘ it feels like they’ve finally dialed back into a sound and style which suits their original impetus. That is to say that this record might be polished to accentuate their most brutal points but conveys a specific 90’s level of death metal savagery unhindered by groove metal antics or sleepy hardcore hops. Though they’ve chosen a very specific baseline in development of vocal cadence, a point of inspiration which is all too clear, this helps to best focus the efforts of this band into the right kind of tunnel vision where all is in service to the riff yet their new-found rhythm section drives every point home with an inspired, heavy-handed touch.

The first life of Aposento took place between 1990 and 1997 wherein they’d put out two demo tapes, the most representative being the second one (‘Eternal Agony‘, 1993) as well as an EP (‘Welcome to Darkness‘, 1997) which is regarded as a classic of 90’s Spanish death metal where the thrashing side of the late 80’s and the brutality of the mid-90’s made for a deep underground cavern they’d commanded well. Their original sound always stood out to me because many of their peers would take on groove metal around that time, death metal bands playing Pantera riffs was common, but they had other sensibilities which were still feral and brutal that’d aligned with the evolution of bands like Sinister and Malevolent Creation. After disbanding this second zombified life for the group would begin in 2012 eventually leading to a debut LP (‘Aposento‘, 2014) and some other releases I’d covered when reviewing their third full-length (‘Conjuring a New Apocalypse‘, 2020). Of course I’d had moderate reactions to those releases, they were satisfyingly brutal and seemed to carry the original intent of the band but with a very polished sound and plain style it was just good, nothing mind-blowing in terms of character and feeling.

Of course I mention a few specific releases from the band’s past here again for the sake of emphasizing works that’d featured their previous mid-to-late 90’s vocalist Carlos García who rejoins along with a new rhythm section for this new album. The best way to walk through the transition from the previous line-up to this one is to step back to their 2020 release, hear the sound of the band demanding a still straightforward but increasingly brutal strike beyond the two records prior (see: “Samhain – The Night of Ignis Fatuus”) and then note that the change to the vocalist from ‘Welcome to Darkness‘ and a different fellowe on the kit will naturally arrive to meet the demands of something more inherently savage, brutal in its purpose. This is what ‘No Safe Haven‘ delivers, a step from the fiery, wrathful sprawl of the previous album into a focused beam of riff-centric ‘old school’ minded death metal. If you are a fan of 2010’s Sinister, classic Deicide (sans the late 90’s sing-a-long songs), and the more distinct years from Vomitory this album should feel just as intense, or, along those lines.

While it is the riffcraft, the referential sound achieved, and the switch to García‘s imposing register which distinguishes ‘No Safe Haven‘ in the grand scheme of things the production values (via engineer Dan Díezare with mixing from Davide Billia) offers a reasonable point of interest here. Of course having the fellowe who drums for Beheaded and Antropofagus tune the mix lends some serious clarity to the drum performances but without sterilizing their resonance in space, there is a classic timbre to these recordings that feels ancient but not obscurant or washed with reverb. As such we get a sound which is less brashly “modern” in that the impact of the rhythm section, not only does this suit the classicist sensibilities of the band but it feels like post-‘Legion‘ released death metal in mid-90’s Poland and Netherlands scenes on some level as we consider the impact of earlier Hate and Altar records, still thrashing crews taking on a more demanding percussive style with clear cues taken from the simple songcraft of early Deicide and the second Sinister record. Of course this record is more accomplished in its musicianship and features a more intense pace in general but we can hone in on a specific 90’s death metal niche where Aposento came from and have always belonged for this record, it feels entirely appropriate and more importantly sounds murderous as they chop through these ten songs in about ~35 minutes.

Whereas past albums from Aposento have been focused on some level they’d rarely felt like a continuous thread album to album or even on a song by song basis, more often generally creating standard enough death metal songs with a brutal (read: severe, mid-90’s inspired) edge to the drumming here the main reason I’d fixated on ‘No Safe Haven’ is that it feels like they’ve selected a lane, found a pocket to burn all their energy into, and while they are funneling themselves down that channel the smaller details are what helps keep repeat listens entertaining. The slapped bass on the title track/opener (“No Safe Haven”), the Glen Benton-isms in the vocal cadence on “Tortured and Abused” (among others), all the way through to the increasingly virtuosic touch of the rhythms on late album songs like “The Devil’s Bargain”… all of this feels like it is being delivered by a band who’ve been in sync for decades. Some of those moments will be too on the nose to start especially when it comes to the interplay between the riffs/progressions and the way the vocalist accentuates those movements yet this result feels more directly related to the 90’s releases from the band either way.

Otherwise there are no majorly deep thoughts to stun anyone with here, for my own taste the previous Aposento album was a peak for their approach as generalist death metal but this is a much better, far more memorable result with a serious rhythm section. ‘No Safe Haven‘ is a gory ‘old school’ death metal album which stays right on subject, pure morbidity and stacks of riffs with fine production values applied to suits the band’s increasingly tuneful skull-slapping style. Extra marks here for the sheer enjoyable nature of this well-stated, no filler album which keeps it short enough and leaves us with a deranged aftertaste thanks to its brilliant album art and strong render. There should be some broad appeal for this with most but this one is more for the brutal mind and for folks who recall how hard bands use to hit in the mid-90’s. A moderately high recommendation.

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