An illustration of nihil-bound spiritual death through bestial scission summoned by way of inverted doctrinal charge this third full-length album from Temuco, Chile-based black/death metal duo CENOTAFIO purports a transcendence of the corporeal within its headily atmospheric gusting. A stylized act of sonic barbarism in ritualistic phase ‘La Escisión Acausal: Por La Vía Inversa Hacia La Descarnación‘ is characterized by its smoked-hazed capture and terrific rumbling apparatus, a warlike yet cavern-borne feat. Rather than recreate the exact sonic progression of past works this latest record from the band devolves, or, rescinds previous clarity for effect ensuring the primal flame backlighting its theme remains radiant throughout.

Cenotafio formed back in 2015 by way of guitarist/vocalist Daniel Hermosilla (Chaos Perversion, Nox Fragor Artworks) and drummer/vocalist Patricio Kusnir both of whom’d collaborated in black metal bands Odrum and Invehertex prior or concurrently. Taking some of the chaotic, bestial atmospheric extremes of their previous work and infusing occult death metal movement their first demo (‘El Encierro de las Grandes Revelaciones‘, 2015) was truly obscure in its cacophonic render, a blurry outline of what they’d evolve into by the time their debut LP (‘La Fatídica Excrecencia de la Subtierra‘, 2017) released. That first album retained the longer ~8-10 minute average on song lengths, nixed some of the noisier atmosphere and incorporated occult death metal aggression often compared to Impetuous Ritual, Grave Miasma and countrymen Wrathprayer to some degree while evading any too-direct semblance of the caverncore of a certain prior era.

That first album’d be the best place to get your first impression of Cenotafio‘s total stature, a balance of bestially struck black-atmospheric death, but I’d make an even more enthused argument for their second LP (‘Larvae Tedeum Teratos‘, 2019) which’d proven beyond immersive in its subterranean, doomed delve per its wield of dark ambient/ritualistic expanse. In my review at the time I’d characterized the experience as an underworld-set fever dream calling commune with ancient ancestral dead’s wisdom (and horror.) For this long anticipated third LP we are situated in a similarly pitch black, bile-drenched sepulchral plane where the soul is cleaved from the flesh entirely, a scene of serpentinous violence where death serves transcendence.

The rattling, hissing thrum of ordo serpentes briefly fills the air as the dark-worming threaten of opener “Atrabilis Taenia Solivm” buzzes in striking tremolo-picked surge and dissonance in succession. The steadier unfurl of their key rhythms here is entirely with precedence considering Cenotafio‘s past releases as acrid atmosphere rises with the heat of their rhythmic action, pushing into the ~third minute of the song with tentative movement. Vocals are deeper buried than the bass guitar tones here to start but the echoic, circularly growling emerges in foreboding trance, angling above the swelling tornadic whirr of the pieces apex hammering within the fourth and fifth minutes in action. The tone of this piece is well-set as a forlorn, ominous and inhuman presence per its bleak abyss-gazing sound.

The rift is merely stretched open at that point as the majority of the album persists with shorter, inward echoing pieces averaging about ~6 minutes each. The coldly struck subterranean war metallic blitz of ‘La Escisión Acausal: Por La Vía Inversa Hacia La Descarnación‘, first via “Osario”, would prove far more chaotic and distant than expected up front, struck by a vortex of wind and guttural rasps from afar for its duration. They’ve not leaned into their riffcraft as crisply or cogently as say, Heresiarch or Teitanblood of late, and instead the thrust of the experience and its atmospheric roar offers its first major point of distinction. The next few pieces are not without feature or notable movement but do not appear to stand out to all but the most immersed ear.

“Acausal Escisión” is a strongly representative piece which both embraces the cavernous droning whorl that is ‘La Escisión Acausal: Por La Vía Inversa Hacia La Descarnación‘ while injecting some manner of expression throughout its length. Still a rattling beast performed at harried pace, the way the waves part around the ~2 minute mark amidst animalistic roaring and gnashing is appreciably feral, more verbose than the preceding tracks in this way. Riffs here are primitive but active, largely in service of arcing tension rather than complete statement and tend to ride along with the frantic swatted-at thrust of the drumming. There will be a perceived lack of riffcraft compared to past albums per existing fandom though I’d translate that observation more directly to interest in simpler black metal ideals and again, the more atmospheric side of bestial black/war metal charge. You wouldn’t mistake Cenotafio‘s sound for ‘Abyss of Wrathful Deities‘ on this record but some of its core interest expresses in similar ways.

Entrance and exodus both serve ‘La Escisión Acausal: Por La Vía Inversa Hacia La Descarnación‘ its most consistently engaging dialogues per slowed pace and dramatic rupture. Closer “Orbis Coagula” offers the most extreme and active example of this beyond “Atrabilis Taenia Solivm” wherein the menace of their rhythms carves its deepest hills-and-valleys in the action. As opposed to a number of other pieces on this record there’re potentially too many highlights to mention here but I’d thought the crawling groove introduced at ~4:48 mins. and the transition beyond ~7:42 minutes in best showcase the transformative wielding of cold, slow atmospheric pressure beyond Cenotafio‘s blasting movement.

Much as I’d appreciated that ‘La Escisión Acausal: Por La Vía Inversa Hacia La Descarnación‘ took a slightly different path than the progression displayed between the previous two LPs from Cenotafio it doesn’t fully live up to the previous standard of riff enjoyed in the past, at least beyond the first and last tracks deployed. The corridor of fuming bestial atmospheric black/death metal resultant is yet an entertaining rush in its own right, cohesive as a persistently flowing experience yet inciteful enough to drag the weary ear along for its duration. A moderately high recommendation.

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