Day: October 25, 2017

Profundum is one of those mysterious bands that periodically emerge from some obscure ravine exhibiting in a magnificent way desperately unhealthy and funereal sounds. As often happens in these cases, among other things, the only certain news are the U.S. origin (San Antonio), the fact that Come, Holy Death is their debut full length that follows the ep of last year What No Eye Has Seen, and that it is a duo formed by the mysterious LR and R, although several clues make me reasonably believe that the latter is, in fact, the Ryan Wilson owner of the fine moniker The Howling Void. In addition, the promotional notes let us know that Profundum draw their inspiration from the fundamental early works of Emperor and then develop an idea of dark music, feral and at the same time majestic. Undoubtedly, those who are familiar with the sounds of In The Nightside Eclipse may agree with this statement, provided that the sound of the Californians lean in a decisive way towards the funeral doom, letting the rage of black matrix are only one of the components of the sound and not the predominant one. Given the necessary premises, we can safely declare Come, Holy Death as one of the surprises of the year when it comes to sounds capable of evoking a sense of yearning mixed with anguish and dulling pain: I go further, saying that perhaps no one, at least in the last decade, has managed to achieve so effectively the atmospheric combination of black metal and funeral. The album is not particularly long, with its eight tracks from the average duration of five minutes each that go to create, however, a unique flow during which suffocating slowdowns bind in a deadly embrace to the sudden acceleration thanks to the solemnity of the keyboards: the voice of LR is a growl that often turns into a scream never too exasperated, however, always remaining within the limits of a certain intelligibility. Come, Holy Death, precisely because of all these features, has no peaks or weaknesses, because there is not a single second wasted lingering in interlocutory passages: here every moment is finalized to the completion of a path that leads to an end more invoked than feared, with the tension that is never allowed to fade. Obliged to choose an emblematic song, I opt for Unmoved Mover, embellished by a measured touch of piano, but I repeat that the other seven tracks are not at all less. Profundum is another name to be marked with the red circle in equal measure, both for fans of atmospheric black and for those of funeral doom.

2017 – Heathen Tribes