With their tendrils growing steeled in scale as they reach for the chilling vacuum of outer space Zarazoga, Spain-based death metal quartet INTOLERANCE have imbued their ‘old school’-minded craft with the otherworldly entrancement of a doomed and cosmic-horrified mind on this stellarly set yet classics-grounded sophomore full-length album. Holding the keys to the gate but standing flayed by the mind-scourge guarding the entrance ‘Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void‘ snarls, mutates and ascends by the time our protagonists have passed on through this wild evolutionary statement. Having built a solid foundation over the course of several years, it comes as a pleasant surprise to find the second album from this band making it a point of transformation in passage from start to finish here as their capabilities expand, their personae emboldens, and thankfully the riffs continue to flow within ’em as they carry out these unmerciful rites of transcendence.

Intolerance formed circa 2015 between folks who’d been involved in various black metal and speed metalpunk bands prior and you could only really feel this freely whipped, punkish count on their first demo tape (‘Abstract Deliverance Of A Twisted Mentality‘, 2016), probably their most 80’s death metal attuned work overall. This not so strict understanding of ‘old school’ death metal rhythms had an Autopsy or early Swedish feeling to it with none of the ex-thrasher precision applied to their riffs. They’d taken their time developing their first official release, the ‘Laments from the Dripstone Cave‘ (2020) EP, and there you could feel their time spent nailing both the blast and groove of early Grave (alternately Asphyx) and the rolling-speed of Unleashed right away with some of ye olde punkish muscle still applied to simple rhythms. Maybe I’d heard a thousand versions of this level of in-development primitivity but that doesn’t mean it’ll ever get old hearing a new band that understands the ragged chainsaw cut of classic death metal. Expectations were set then and there and arguably exceeded when the band’s debut LP (‘Dark Paths of Humanity‘, 2022) continued to escalate the refinement of the band’s still classicist underground death metal style.

One brief point of insight on that first album was probably “Beyond the Axis of Truth”, a song that’d brought a different step to the purely stomping roll of the style, but the majority of the record rang with similar tone throughout and never managed enough of a response on my side to warrant a full review. As such I’d approached this album with zero hype heading in, expecting plainly flat-lining pure 90’s style death metal (not a bad thing, mind you.) Just a couple of years later ‘Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void‘ still touts a feasibly traditional, unfucked-with style of death metal but with far more attention paid to presentation and tonal variety with exploration into atmosphere with plenty of different pace n’ pulse that it feels evolutionary in step. Part of this comes via a new vocalist P. (ex-Impasse) who also features on second guitar, bringing a different kind of retched-out vocal alongside songs written more clearly for two guitars where both rhythms and leads help drive home the simple but pace-aware opener “Fade Into Oblivion” toward its main statement. The use of keyboards is sparse beyond the short intro track (“Towards Perdition”) and part of the main verse run features a few hits but this paired with some slower, steadier tempos help reintroduce Intolerance’s sound as ancient, sure, but also capable of interesting modulation and kinda catchy opening moments. I mean, the title of the song is repeated often enough that you’ll remember the stamp these folks leave as a first impression no matter what.

As it turns out a hit of doomed-over atmosphere is what Intolerance needed as an already sort of mid-paced but blasted-at early 90’s styled death metal band as the (early) Aeternus-esque riff that kicks off “The Dark Forest” feels entirely natural as an addition to their oeuvre, slow-waltzing through its paces ’til a point of jog n’ jangle begins to pull us more in a circa ’92 Finnish/Swedish death direction emphasized more on key single “Rite of Passage” and “Hand of Glory” beyond that point. While there’d been a blunt simplicity to the band’s work in the past as we hit the mid-point of ‘Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void’ it becomes clear they’ve advanced, pressed on into something closer to this goal of classic ‘old school’ death metal sound and while this isn’t a wildly original result it is yet an inspired one which speaks to the best traditions of sinister, morbid death music of the (mostly) European conviction. They’ve got serious riffs, the vocalist is both more active and squarely lined-up in his cadence to match those riffs, and the whole of this album has already made its case for something readied for an above-average result. For my own taste “Hand of Glory” takes that step in its dramatic, melodious second half but no doubt the final three pieces on the album are there to do more, to fully stretch into the beyond.

“Spontaneous Self-Awareness of the Void” represents the peaking exhaustion of this record with an early melodic death feeling rise to its introduction and the slow-stepping death/doom current that’d already been rippling through the full listen combining forces for one of the more ‘epic’ movements on the album. This song’d always given me pause when I’d set ‘Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void‘ on intending to test it as background music and finding the jut-out beyond the ~3:26 minute mark consistently caught my interest, feeling the distance covered by Intolerance on this album had been far more than expected. The closer, “Melting Skies”, exacerbates this sensation as they’ve fully weirded out, doomed out into the expanse and brought mournful celestial keys and searching leads as the finale of the album closes on a note of draining horror amidst some manner of darkly howling ascension. The atmosphere at this peaking moment is incredibly intense and goes above and beyond what these folks needed to do to finish the thought.

To top off the experience I’d particularly loved the moon-gripping Eldritch horror which features on the album’s cover art, via artist Juan Alberto Hernandez, whose dark and supernatural imagery somewhat recalls the mood of Matt Sidney‘s piece for another Memento Mori alumnus Altered Dead to some slight degree. It suits the broader mood and mission of ‘Waking Nightmares of an Endless Void‘ perfectly while giving the eye a bit of a grotesque mystery to parse while listening; While I’d gone into this record expecting a serious enough ‘old school’ death metal kick I’d not been prepared for the level of atmospheric dread and overall eerie abandon that’d been infused into its movements which, sure, still ready-up as classic death metal but take on a palpable feeling of cosmic horror which is an estranged, kinda memorable ruckus to start and a sky-doomed tragedian ascension by the end. A high recommendation.

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