With our primeval engine left whirring off-cylinder and expended of every last telomeric extension our ancient clock is left to flatly rattle through its timeworn exterior as the caustic remnants of the “self” are soured by discord and tempest ’til eroded… settled into putrid dust by the wrathful degrade of Buenos Aires, Argentina-based death metal trio ATAUDES who’d repeatedly conjure their decayed tones with the temperament of an ageless ghoul on this impressive sophomore full-length album. ‘Tempus Edax Rerum‘ presents time as the unsettling source of angst within mankind, an incontrovertible devourer of existence (and remembrance) as the nihil pours bile-black and reeking from each piece. Their work on this second LP smacks of paradigmatic soul-exchange, a dramatic shift in voicing which better attains (and elevates) their original vision of morbid, angularly cut death metal rippling with eerie-toned atmospheric descent.

Ataudes formed circa 2019 between two ex-members of death metal band Lvganör, vocalist Cristian Viegas and drummer Jonatan Zarate the latter of whom performed all of the instruments on the band’s debut LP. Foregoing any sort of demo or minor release the duo’s first official release ‘Merecemos la Extinción‘ (2020) was well-formed as an amorphous blackened death metal creeper, a record that’d featured odd-slithering movement and death-thrashing grooves but with the occasional nod towards a late 90’s black/death inspired sound, something in the Immolation and Incantation inspired vein more-or-less. Apart from the production being thin in spots and the riffs not fully landing on a few songs it was a solid debut… one which still refuses to stick in mind on my part despite its inventive approach to movement. This second album features entirely different treatment of pacing, now experimenting with dissonant phrasing far more often, likely a result of the duo having been transformed by the addition and input of a third member in the interim.

This turns out to be a great deal of change, a mutant growth and a brilliant evolutionary event wherein ‘Tempus Edax Rerum‘ explores a broadened palette within far more voluminous space while making use of a dark, blunted and downcast tone given to semi-dissonant foray. My best attempt at describing the full effect is maybe mid-paced blackened semi-dissonant death metal with very little emphasis on the “blackened” part of that sub-genre muck. Ataudes‘ sound combines the inventive strokes of ‘Unholy Cult‘-era Immolation as well as the headier trips of more recent Krypts releases, basking in the type of dramatic waft of a fan of Grave Miasma would appreciate per a numbing, hard-edged yet atmospheric barrage. These novel bulldozer level tones arrive alongside the inclusion of guitarist Ivo Bisceglia who is probably best known as a key member of avant-garde death-grind band Tumba De Carne, taking an already quite rhythmically entranced band and applying greater pressure to points of riffing obsession, ranting movement and sinister leads.

Some but not all of those characteristics should be evident in approach of album opener “Abandona Toda Esperanza” as we’re immediately shoved into the tension of the opening riff salvo as its gloom begins to hang heavy beyond the first ~minute or so. Things get far more interesting on my part beyond the first spastic lead burst ~1:45 minutes in, the gear-grinding riff that follows (~2:04 minute mark) and interrupts the solo ’til it picks back up. This moment of ‘old school’ high-brained weave’d been an instant cue to pay closer attention to these arrangements, rhythmic gravel which offers more than the usual dissodeath toppling lunge. The real test of this level of might in concoction comes with “La Deidad Durmiente”, the first piece to test the fortitudes of the classicist death metal ear with some interest in death-doom and dissonance, a song which builds its narrative via interplay between the guitarists and further opens its hissing portal to downtuned dread-whipping aggression.

The big deal song that cements the whole experience for my own taste comes via “Lo que Mora en Eld Subconsciente”, which is likewise the one which inspires references to peak newer-gen Finndeath (Desecresy, Krypts, etc.) and offers a fine example of the rhythmic knots these folks tie between the two guitar performances, maximizing the swaying, gloomed over atmosphere Ataudes have brought anew with ‘Tempus Edax Rerum‘. Landing in the middle of the full listen after steeping in the moodier excitement and aggressive dissonant strikes of the first few pieces this song is the mountain built and the careen downward, a slow build that pays out in pressurized and chaotically scrambling dismay. It is one of the more experimentally struck, noxiously fuming parts of the album and a real climax for Side A. “Ausencia Absoluta de Todo Ser” expands upon this approach while repeating the successes of that highlighted mode, an even more cavernous pit to become lost in later on. — Though there is a whole second side to this record to consider I’d say right there at the end of the first half you can be confident every song on ‘Tempus Edax Rerum’ finds its own rhythmic twist or temperamental tangent to keep the ear guessing between frenetic pure death metal trod and inventive rhythmic tension.

Beyond a marching speed punch-in and wrathful chugging first verse “La Desgracia” ends up building on the core rhythmic cull devised on this album while opting to fire off a series of inspired ideas in a straight line. Wailing leads and harmonic chipped, slow-grooved sprawl make for a compacted and contested opening statement but Ataudes‘re just as soon transitioning to a swatted late 80’s death metal beat and scrambling chunk of early 90’s death-thrash riffcraft (~3:09 minutes in) before they’ve found a place to plant this song… hitting the brakes entirely at the four minute mark. Their return with a stroke of pure doom, or, a very ‘Cadaver Circulation‘-worthy creep does a lot to round the song and salvage its mania back to the riff again. Though that description might sound like a bad case of ADHD on paper in motion all of these elements work within the dirt heavy, surreal dirge of ‘Tempus Edax Rerum‘. Every piece finds a destination which is different from where we’d began and they’ve leaned into their grooves with a punishing hand in most cases.

While Ataudes‘ production values have improved in this shift toward a darker underground standard and their rhythmic oeuvre/chord language has undeniably expanded their riffcraft I’d view their work on ‘Tempus Edax Rerum‘ as additive, built upon a similarly eclectic set of sensibilities but now amped, edited and practiced to a different degree. It isn’t a full-on alien level event but a sea change via refinement and deepened collaboration. What sells this record on my part is the balance between surreal rhythmic drift and an imposing, serious and sinister tonality which is punishing in its attack but riding a downward ringing wave of dread at the same time. Because their work’d hit upon a lot of my favorite territory in death metal, ‘old school’ and otherwise, this one stuck with me and ultimately won me over despite the miserable weight of its full effect. It is inspiring to see a band take such a leap and end up with an album that still bleeds classics-minded blood but carries its own ambitious character in the final result. A high recommendation.

ATAUDES ‘Tempus Edax Rerum’

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