Scaphism’s “Unutterable Horrors” was released by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on January 12th |
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In this world full of turbulence and masochism, few bands are rarely able to capture the intense
depravity that is ever so present in mankind. “Boston’s SCAPHISM looks to kick off 2018 in the most
violent way possible with the release of Unutterable Horrors.” This truly is a masterpiece of
pre-programmed violence and chaos, with hardcore and death metal influences.
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“The band’s highly-anticipated new album comes five years after its debut, Festering Human Remains.
The time between releases has seen SCAPHISM grow into one of the most lethal forces on the New
England Death Metal scene.” This is an eight-track album hellbent on dishing out energetic and
spine-crushing perfection. Unutterable Horrors was released on January 12 via Horror Pain Gore
Death Productions.
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With an intro focused on drums, “Gruesome Unmentionables and Unutterable Horrors” kicks off this
album with quick transitions between an assault on snares and double bass pedal. Consistent guitar
chugs chime in as a slow delivery of death growls intermix with the track. The instrumental breaks are
accentuated by beating out a slow delivery of guitar chugs and drums to breed a feeling of depravity in
its finest. The tempo picks back up for the vocals into the outro, until the song fades out with an
onslaught on drums and vocals. Following this track is “Malapropos Cardiectomy”, which mainly
focuses on its guitar chugs in this track with a fill-in on drums. As the vocal delivery on this track
starts, the tempo for the instruments start picking up as well to follow suit. The instruments then start
spreading out their riffs as the vocal delivery slows down gradually. The instrumental break for this
song is freaking intense with their blast beat execution, since it drives the listener into a frenzy.
Elongated death growls and instrumentals then progressively lead the song to its conclusion. Uptempo
snare beats open up for “Mitte Eos Ad Infernos”, as quick and precise guitar chugs and death growls
join the track. A little more vocal variety is evident as well, as there are some sections of duel vocal
recital. Consistent uptempo instrumentals slam out the majority of the song, until it builds into a
mid-tempo instrumental break with an elongated death growl preceding it. The instruments keep up
this pattern until it builds back up in tempo for the end of the song. Up next is “Vaults of Pestilence”,
in which a quick assault of guitar chugs with a quick intermittent fill of drums coincides for the intro.
A fast drum pattern seems to be the main focus of the track, as a slow delivery of death growls opens
up the song. A fast and brutally heavy instrumental break enters the mix as it gradually slows the
tempo. Slow guitar chugs then take over as a quick intermittent fill in of drums present themselves
once again. The tempo speeds back up for the remainder of the song as its intensity starts to fade out.
“Trepanate the Undesired” continues the album with a pounding on double bass pedals and snares with
alternating melodic guitar fill-ins. An elongated call out gets thrown into the mix as some beastly
guitar chugs pick up in tempo with a speedy striking on snare drums. The death growl vocals are a bit
more spaced out as it coincides with a mid-tempo beat. A few transitions between some slow and low
instruments are done, but it gradually picks back up into a blast-beat pattern for the remainder of the
track. Following is “The Feaster from the Stars”, which has an intro focused on quick transitions
between a solid beating on snares and double bass pedal for drums. Elongated death growls mingle
with an insanely fast pattern of instruments, until the vocals are spaced out in a more reserved manner.
The instrumental breaks for this song are gnarly as hell, since they breed a feeling of chaos with their
blast-beat manner. This track’s outro builds in force until it abruptly fades out.
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An unbelievably quick drum pattern with a delayed drum roll repeats for the first few measures as
vocals join for the next track “Excoriated and Excarnated”. Spaced out vocals are slowed in
juxtaposition to the instruments, with a main focus on drums. The vocalist does a prime job in
performing their growls as they really add a sense of tension to the song. Low and slow guitar chugs
with mid-tempo drum attacks make up the instrumental breaks, until the outro slows down to a crawl
with an elongated line of vocals to finish it off. The final track of the album, “Hypovolemic
Purification”, changes things up a bit by really taking its time with the opening. It starts off by
building up slow and heavy instrumental patterns for an extremely long opener as compared to the rest
of the album. A repeated and elongated call out then builds up their intensity for the track, until the
spaced out death growls delve in, until a tempo change picks up to blast-beats. The instruments start
to switch between mid-tempos and breakneck speeds for the remainder of the song until the vocals start to pick up in tempo, as the instruments build in intensity to finish it all off.
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Overall, this was a beast of an eight-track album, with influences for the band ranging from hardcore
guitar chugs, black metal drum patterns, death metal lyrics, and just a bang-up altogether job of
expressing brutality. The highlights of this album for me were all of the tempo transitions,
instrumental variety, lyrical composition, and their overall performance. If you have not checked
these guys out yet, then I definitely recommend that you do.
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