Sheol / For - Tehom / Ginungagap

SHEOL / FOR - Tehom / Ginungagap (IRON BONEHEAD 7"EP 2015)

Iron Bonehead presents another vinyl release and this one is really damn awesome, not only because I simply love the artwork – which looks truly impressive on this 7”size gatefold cover – but also because there are two new, young bands which crush the walls with their music. So, we have here Sheol (or שְׁאוֹל) from UK (whose “Sepulchral Ruins Below The Temple” I already knew) and Fōr from Sweden, who also had a demo and EP released before, but I never had a chance to hear them. And yes, this is a very nice alliance and something what seems to be a conceptual work from both bands, at least the title “Tehom / Ginungagap” makes me think that.

So, with Sheol I started and my reactions was just “WOW”. Their “Phosphagous Amorpheon” is such a killer track. OK, I do realize that there are quite few bands nowadays, which perform this crushing heavy, gloomy and kind of monumental death metal, so strongly influenced by Incantation for instance… We can mention Grave Miasma, Abyssal and Cruciamentum, to stick only to the British soil, and you’ll already have a good comparison. But who cares, as long as Sheol really do their job so fuckin well? “Phosphagous Amorpheon” is not your mediocre death metal, but a real beast. The music is massive, oppressive, the riffs are mesmerizing and hammering and the whole sounds like recorded in the catacombs. What’s interesting is that Sheol also use some slightly more melodic parts here and there, but that works only for the better. The ghoulish growls are great also, I like that “Phosphagous Amorpheon” has both fast and very slow parts, the sound is killer… So, even if there’re quite many similar bands, I do not feel tired with this sort of playing and definitely שְׁאוֹל is among my favourites, when speaking of this style of sepulchral death metal.

And Fōr (with “To Envisage a Fuliginous Sun”) maybe do not make quite such a great impression, but turns out to be also a solid band. Style wise it’s pretty similar thing, so again we deal with utterly heavy, crushing, fierce death metal, but way more doomy and massive when compared to Sheol. It’s also much more rough, suffocating and also obscure, it’s almost chaotic in some parts, so it’s not as easy listen as the song from side A, not quite as impressive also, but a solid track for sure.

By the way, I don’t know if I can believe the Metal Archives details on this EP or really both songs are exactly 7.04 minutes long?

Final rate: 80/100