Cadaveric Fumes / Demonic Oath - Entwined in Sepulchral Darkness

CADAVERIC FUMES / DEMONIC OATH - Entwined in Sepulchral Darkness (IRON BONEHEAD - LP 2014)

“Entwined in Sepulchral Darkness" is a split LP, released back in 2014 by Iron Bonehead, where you could find two young death metal projects from France - Cadaveric Fumes and Demonic Oath. And let me tell you one thing - this LP is a real death metal feast for the bloodthirsty maniacs of the most obscure, vicious and underground stuff. Bands such as these two may not be exploring new territories, they don’t do anything exceptional or "fancy". Their music is harsh, primeval, unprofessional... but it is great anyway and these songs have specific charm and aura so characteristic for old demos or obscure death metal albums. 

Cadaveric Fumes comes with "Aeon of Scorn" and "Dreadful Remembrance" and from the first second my thought was: "oh yeah, these guys must worship very early Morbid Angel!". But it's not just that. You could hear Merciless, Nihilist, Deicide in their music as well as Repugnant, Verminous and so on and forth. Raw sound, very noisy, almost chaotic and truly merciless style of death metal, a lot of fast tempos, sometimes almost thrashing inclinations... the music is always uncompromising and nasty from the start to finish. Just as I like it. I do realize that their music may not be for everyone, mainly due to dirty, raw sound and the mentioned chaotic feel. But who cares. 

As such, I am afraid Demonic Oath won't be much easier for you to get into. This is a project of Kev from Venefixion (also a live drummer for Destroyer666), I'm not even sure if it's still active as from "The Crypt of Mournful Summoning" demo (2012) and this split, nothing else came out with this logo. Anyway, both songs Kev prepared for this split are very good. Stylistically Demonic Oath fits Cadaveric Fumes very well, even though their music is a bit simplier and thus more straight forward and brutal sounding. Kev also takes influences from classic death metal fully, and even if his music sounds very raw and almost lo-fi (which is why it sometimes reminds me Throneum), it's got that great atmosphere and character I worship so much. Many great riffs, even slightly melodic parts, like towards the end of “Sacrilegious Invocation”... So, I am really into it, such a shame then that there’s nothing more from Demonic Oath after this split. Of corpse there’s Venefixion, which is another killer French band... But I never have enough. 

Verdict: 70/100