Sinistrous Diabolus - Total Doom//Desecration

SINISTROUS DIABOLUS - Total Doom//Desecration (PUTRID CULT - CD 2019)

I've enjoyed quite many releases from Putrid Cult, but hardly any of them made such a big impact on me as Sinistrous Diabolus and their "Total Doom//Desecration". I probably should know this album earlier, as this New Zealand project from the members of Temple Nightside, Witchrist or Vassafor released it back in 2013 for the first time, but it was a very limited vinyl only release on unknown to me Internecion Productions, so no surprise that I missed it. Putrid Cult unleashed this pest on CD for the first time and added a couple of bonus tracks, which gives us over an hour of the most extreme sounding doom / death metal you could imagine. 

I suppose that for many, it will be a real challenge to go through the entire album. Sinistrous Diabolus music is very difficult, it's joyless and it's anything but not an entertaining or catchy music for your average metal head. It's more like a soundtrack to your nightmare and an album, which requires specific conditions to be played at. Turn the lights off, play it loud and just sit down and listen. Then these sounds may devour you completely. Sinistrous Diabolus music creates very dark, sinister atmosphere, it combines heavy, doomy riffs, ghoulish vocals and many moments of noise or ambient sounds, so there's no typical song structures, catchy parts or whatever. Even more difficult to the listener may be the fact that this album has two long parts: one is 20 minutes long and the second is 40 minutes long. So, you cannot even skip a fragment, which you dislike, but have to listen to "Total Doom//Desecration" in its entirety. If you can manage of corpse. Have I? Yes, more than once. I really love this bleak, mournful atmosphere of that music, its simplistic nature and generally how Sinistrous Diabolus sounds. When I've listened to it on the headphones, I was especially amazed, it was quite special experience and something very, very interesting. Sure, maybe it would be better if they divided these songs into shorter parts, just like they appear on the original vinyl (I think?), but on the other hand I would still listen to the album in its entirety, without skipping some fragments, so it doesn't even matter. Everything here sounds like a journey into the abyss or something very dark and sinister. There are obviously some very, very goods riffs, like in "Wipe Out Christianity (Pestis)", but mind that it's not an album, where the typical extreme metal means have big importance. It's about creating the atmosphere and almost like putting you into trance. It's total doom.

All in all, I can only recommend "Total Doom//Desecration", it's fantastic album, in my opinion, and a very strong title in Putrid Cult's catalogue. I hope they will also unleash their second full length album on CD soon. 

Verdict: 80/100