Returned from the depths as creatures of vengeful darkness Santiago, Chile-based black/death metal quintet DEATH YELL are arisen once more through pandemonic rites to reign with terror as their nigh four decade long history arrives upon an admirable sophomore full-length album. ‘Demons of Lust‘ does not attempt recreate the conditions of the late 80’s that’d birthed their craft so much as it recognizes the timeless furor and erratic function that’d made South American extreme metal such a storied and influential force in their heyday. As such we get an update to their maniac signature which still bears the thrilling daemonic spiritus of the old ways without the too-common feeling of “half right” takes on ancient forms, perturbed by modernity or cleansed of any essential grit.

Although they’d technically formed circa 1987 under the name Pestilence the infamy attributed to their acts would solidify in 1988 as Death Yell, working toward their legendary late year recorded demo tape (‘Vengeance from Darkness‘, 1989) soon after. That demo and its standing has always been a curious fate in the sense that Chile didn’t have much of any label support for extreme metal at the time yet these folks received tons of interest, their Warfare Noise inspired sound sold well, and to the point that their best songs were repurposed for a split with Beherit as well as a 7″ on a Seraphic Decay sub-label focused on deathgrind. Any fan of the early days of Sarcófago, Pentagram (Chile) and Holocausto will appreciate that tape and it deserves some legendary status among the niche but I’d recommend the ‘Morbid Rites‘ compilation from 2007 to the uninitiated as it opens the mind to the band’s pursuits beyond spastic punkish 80’s black/death, including a 1990 live show where they’d perform a song from the first Atheist record.

Split-up in 1991 and reformed in 2012 the resurrection of Death Yell would result in a few splits before pulling the trigger on a debut LP (‘Descent Into Hell‘, 2017) intending to recall the level of ruthless, erratic severity of the late 80’s underground they’d spawned from. For my own taste they were entirely successful, landing a positive review and a spot at #30 on my Top 50 Albums of the Year for the sake of believably carrying some of those long-dead traditions into their own grinding blackened death hysteria. That album is equally important as their 1989 demo tape in terms of the listener developing some manner of precedence for what ‘Demons of Lust‘ is, though there have been a few changes to their line-up in the years since their debut: Beyond a new rhythm section original bassist Guatiu has now switched to guitar in place of original second guitarist Pulga who left once the previous album was completed in 2016 or so. I don’t know how much of a different this makes in practicum as much of the previous album was written by guitarist Pollo and it sounds like the same is true for most of this new record.

‘Demons of Lust‘ invokes the unpredictive volatile reap of late 80’s extreme metal without resorting to intentionally sloppier movement or caked-up reverb, tightening up some of Death Yell‘s signature quick change heavy barrage without losing the thrashing, punkish abandon of the form. In this sense we can’t accuse their latest album of replicating the production values or naiveté of classic underground South American death metal but rather writing and performing material that suits its original fire, fittingly representing their original inspiration while carrying their own flag. It is the best possible outcome from a band that was around, albeit briefly, at the right time only to revive their own spiritus decades later. You’ll hear exactly what I mean the moment “The Parish” as vocalist Galleta rasps loose his first lines and the band hurl and blast through its first attack. Bent n’ wailing leads (re: “Predatory Preacher” opening) spike with interest amidst trampling movement and fast-darting, simple-yet-incendiary riffcraft ’til a series of refrains offer a hit of keyboards and in that four minute run we get a good idea of what myriad directions they’ll take this album.

In my time spent with ‘Demons of Lust‘, and Death Yell‘s discography for that matter, it’d struck me a bit harder that their work has a sort of ‘I.N.R.I.‘ vibe to it. That has always been the case to some degree but for this new album drumming from Lúcuma (Trimegisto) helps to feature those sensibilities in a way which pulls from the era of ‘Altars of Madness‘ and ‘Pleasure to Kill‘, too. “Predatory Preacher” gets there via their most signature sway, probably the most straight forward piece on the album and as a result one of my favorites, but it’ll be the menacing roll through “Conjuring Asmodeus’ Seed” that grips your ear outright, reprising some of the keys brought on opener “The Parish”. Any great extreme metal album carries its heat toward and throughout its mid-point for the sake of superior momentum and this song is a fine example of opening the door to Side B while acting as a major event to cap off Side A. “Will Never Enjoy” kind of functioned in a similar way on their previous LP.

As the pace surges and song lengths extend a bit Side B is where the real daemonic ancient black/death metal fiends will be most sated as the complexity of the fiery maze Death Yell achieve here hits is maximum purge with “Seal of Confusion” and closer “Altar Servers’ Wrath” bringing some of my favorite riffs on the album. Granted the latter is a messier, unhinged assault meant to signal the end and is suitable for the moment whereas the former is, to me, one of the more representative batterers on the full listen, avoiding repeating all the tricks found on earlier highlights and instead leaning into caustic brutality; Though I’d initially felt ‘Demons of Lust‘ was dragging on at ~44 minutes, being maybe one song too long for their intense style, it’d nonetheless delivered an intense and unbroken showing in the process and without getting completely lost in the circuitous turns taken through their dungeon of fire and mayhem. These folks are admirably die-hard in that they’ve fully reinforced their name and (once again) found more to do with the classic ‘old school’ underground maniac style that’d birthed them almost four decades beyond. A high recommendation.

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