heavy-metal-darkness: Sermon To The Lambs |Sermon To The Lambs |Comatose Music

Monday, February 16, 2026

Sermon To The Lambs |Sermon To The Lambs |Comatose Music

Release Date March 6^th, 2026
Format CD/Digital
Genre Brutal Death Metal
Country Chile

Sermon To The Lambs is a fresh entity emerging from the depths of the Chilean underground, ready to unleash their debut self-titled album. This trio features Richard Aguayo on vocals, Mauro M. handling guitar and bass duties, and Victor Araneda on drums. Picked up by the roster at Comatose Music, the band aims to deliver a mix of hypnotic, slow passages and explosions of speed. With artwork by the legendary Par Olofsson, they are looking to leave a mark on the global scene with themes of desolation, judgment, and malevolence.

When you see the logo of Comatose Music and cover art by Par Olofsson, you expect a specific standard of quality. Visually, "Sermon To The Lambs" looks like a beast, promising a massacre of high-grade South American brutality. The opener "Crowned King Of The Worms" starts the violence immediately, and the riffing style is totally competent. These guys clearly listen to the heavy hitters of the genre like Brodequin and Enmity. The guitar work has that chugging thickness that fans of the style crave, and the vocals from Richard Aguayo are sufficiently guttural and disgusting. On paper, everything is in place for a killer release.

However, once you press play, a massive sonic issue smacks you right in the face. The drum sound pierces the ears with a frequency that is physically painful (for me at an age). It is baffling how a mix can turn a brutal performance into an endurance test for your hearing. To be brutally honest, if I had to choose, I would put on Metallica's "St. Anger" for a milder form of torture. The snare and cymbals sit in a range that cuts through the mix like a rusty knife, distractingly loud and harsh. It ruins the heavy atmosphere the strings are trying to build.

Tracks like "Maximum Apostasy" and "Flagrum Taxillatum" suffer immensely from this production choice. You can hear that the riffs are heavy and the songwriting has potential, but you spend the entire runtime wishing you could reach into the speakers and turn down the high frequencies on the drum kit. The rhythmic battery dominates the soundstage to the point where the guitars fight for space. Even the inclusion of Jeff Page on the bonus tracks "God Spat And The Man Was Done" and "Clergy’s Malevolence" can't save the overall listening experience from this piercing mix.

It is a shame because Sermon To The Lambs has the chops. The talent is there, the artwork is top-tier, and the label support is right. But in a genre that relies on crushing heaviness, a tinny and ear-shattering drum production is a fatal error. This album is a decent debut that is severely handicapped by the man behind the mixing desk. If you can tolerate high-frequency abuse, give it a spin, but otherwise, this is a middle-of-the-road release that wastes its potential on bad audio choices.

Score: 6.5