Year: 2025
Label: Xtreem Music
Some two years ago, we reviewed Colombian death metal act Funeral Vomit’s debut album (here). Our conclusion was that the band had nailed the style, but lacked the songs to carry their sonic aesthetic home.
Now it is time for album number two. Have the Colombians learned to write more memorable songs? Or does the album suffer from the same pitfalls as its predecessor?
Interestingly enough, it does, but the end result is vastly different. There still aren’t memorable songs, but even so, Upheaval Of Necromancy comes across as vastly superior and major step forward. It’s paradoxical in so many ways that Funeral Vomit haven’t improved in the one area where I criticized them most, but have still managed to up their game.
In essence, Upheaval Of Necromany is stylistically very much the same as as debut album Monumental Putrescence. This is old school death metal in a style that predates later subgenre classifications such as brutal, melodic, death/doom etc. This is death metal in a primordial, pure state. As on the first album, I think of bands like Infester, Baphomet/Banished, and other relatively early proponents of death metal, whose blasphemous style doesn’t fit into retroactively created nichés.
This means burping guttural vocals, viciously shredding guitars and drumwork that owes an obvious debt to thrash metal. Faster sections are balanced with headbangable mid-tempo sections and slow parts that give the guitars ample room to shred.
Considering things remain largely the same, why is Upheaval Of Necromancy then so much better? And it undeniably is. I think it’s in the fierceness and the impact. The sophomore effort sounds more aggressive, more forceful, more confident.
None of the songs still stand out, they’re all essentially interchangeable, but this time around it doesn’t matter. Because Funeral Vomit sound fierce. They manage to tap into that murky, nasty brutality that’s so quintessential to aforementioned early bands, and embody in a rather timeless manner a very old school sound. On one hand, this is pure throwback; but on the other, this doesn’t feel like nostalgia. The energy and the delivery makes Upheaval Of Necromancy relevant.
The debut showcased potential. This album delivers on it.
Only Death Is Real 