mourner
Pure relentless old school death metal. As crushing as shredding and just a great listen. 5 songs, straight to the point and banging 🤘
Favorite track: Sickening On Hatred.
I have my personal top three of the Spanish death metal: Graveyard, Morbid Flesh and Ataraxy. Each one of these bands have an impressive list of recordings and I can only recommend them all, because if you like that old school death metal, slightly flavoured with the Swedish style of Dismember, then this will also be your kind of shit. Every time I listen to any of these bands, this is just great pleasure. And now it’s time for the last of the three bands I mentioned. Ataraxy debuted in 2009 with a demo “Rotten Shit”, which back in 2012 was released also on vinyl by Black Mass Records. And well, this is definitely a mandatory release and a great demo from this band.
You'll find there five songs, which unleash pure, devastating death metal hell, right from the very first second. No intro, no time wasted, they just get to the point right away with “Towards the Inquisitor's Pyre”. And you’ll get crushed with a killer savage death metal, played in very harsh, primeval, kind of archaic form, reminiscent of old Scandinavian scene (both Finnish and Swedish), but without really concentrating much on the melodic or atmospheric side of it, but more on the vicious and aggressive riffage. Which is why songs like “Sickening on Hatred” kick so hard and mercilessly. Maybe Ataraxy wasn’t the most impressive band to come up with that sort of old school death metal (at that time, at least), but they definitely had enough good ideas and riffs to come up with more than just a solid demo. I definitely enjoy that “rotten”, harsh sound of it, grinding riffs, sick vocals and the overall uncompromising feel of this music. Plenty of fast tempos, occasional slower parts, and just enough of that powerful, raw sound to force me to play this vinyl several times in a row and loud as I only can.
Written in 2019 by Martin Olchack // Panzerfaust Zine.
credits
released July 20, 2009
· Recorded, mixed and mastered by Javi Félez at Moontower Studios.
· Remastered at Moontower Studios, March 2012.
· Artwork by Raúl González.
· Self-released by the band in 2009 (CDr).
· Released in 2010 by Filthy Cave Records (MC).
· Re-released in 2012 by Black Mass Records (one-sided 12").
· Compiled along with the Curse Of The Requiem Mass mini-album on CD in 2019 by Memento Mori.
I bought the digital version and after a few listens I realised I hadn't paid enough, so I bought the CD from Transcending Obscurity. Effing great. jousterjim
Featuring members of Noothgrush, Graves at Sea, and more, the Oakland metal band juxtapose cavernous doom with spaced-out shoegaze. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 21, 2024
Love this sludgy, doomy, blackened dm concoction. Warcrab went in a more energetic and arguably more focused direction after this, but I think this album will always be my favourite. Recommended!
MJ