Release
Date: 20 October 2025
Format: CD
Country: USA
Thaumaturgy rose from the American Midwest in
2021, initially as the vision of the mysterious KT,
whose goal was to create extreme music steeped in darkness, violence, and
atmosphere. The band’s first release, “Charnel Gnosis”, introduced their
cavernous take on death-doom, while the debut full-length “Tenebrous Oblations”
two years later expanded that approach into a suffocating display of
underground power. Now a trio with TG and DS completing the lineup, Thaumaturgy
continue their trajectory with their second album, “Pestilential Hymns”,
released by Memento Mori. The album, finds
the band leaning further into death metal aggression while retaining a sense of
suffocating weight and blackened intensity.
“Pestilential
Hymns” is an uncompromising plunge into darkened death metal that manages to
balance sheer violence with passages of looming heaviness. Across its eight
tracks, the album swings between frantic speed and crushing dirges, creating chaos.
“Neuroticism Triumphant” opens with blistering energy, establishing the savage intent that runs throughout the album. That drive continues into “The Oncologist’s Hymn” and “The Shadow Approaches,” where riffs twist and hammer in relentless succession, the drumming pressing forward with mechanical endurance. “Plague Ritual” and “Awaken Ares” stretch the sound into longer forms, combining aggression with monumental doom possession collapsing the floor beneath you. “Forced March” closes the album in dominating fury, its length used to pile on riff after riff until everything caves in.
The vocal
performance is one of the defining traits here, a pained roar that carries the
intensity of Martin van Drunen at his most frenzied.
Rather than being buried under the instrumental storm, the vocals act as an
additional weapon, cutting through the chaotic wall of riffs and drums.
Occasionally, faint synth layers seep in, giving certain passages an
otherworldly shimmer without disrupting the brutality.
Production-wise,
“Pestilential Hymns” avoids over-saturation while maintaining raw heaviness.
The guitars churn with cavernous depth, the bass remains thick in the
background, and the drums cut with harsh precision. The mix grants the album a
suffocating presence, amplifying the violence without sanding down its jagged
edges.
Thaumaturgy has
created a chaos that is punishing, atmospheric, and memorable in equal measure.
“Pestilential Hymns” captures the essence of underground death metal while
injecting just enough variety to keep the assault gripping across its 45
minutes.
Score: 8.0
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