Review Summary: Channeling of darkness.
Among the numerous admirable bands in the old school death metal revival wagon that has been glaringly marching for the last 15 years, Witch Vomit from Portland, Oregon and especially their second full length album Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave from 2019, is one of my favorites. Without reinventing the wheel, their own outlook on the archaic Swedish formulas, parsed with discernible compositional talent and enthusiasm, has made them stand out to me as I have been enjoying more or less every single release since their inception in 2012. The third full-length album, Funeral Sanctum, arrives five years after Buried Deep..., on a seemingly refurbished but not entirely new route for the band.
What immediately catches the eye is the sinister cover art, done once again by Matt Stikker (who has designed covers for Outer Heaven among others, apart from the previous Witch Vomit releases). The concept this time is distinctly different from before, embracing black metal-ish aesthetics suffused in blue color as an encomium to the iconic paintings of Necrolord back in the 90’s. On top of that, the band follows a similar kind of rabbit hole when it comes to the music in Funeral Sanctum, which has now introduced beloved Scandinavian black / death metal melodicism to the straight-on death metal savagery that has been the identity of the band up to this point. While this does not come as a full surprise after close examination of their back catalog, this approach has now been adopted more clearly, and relatively adequately too.
Witch Vomit’s affinity towards Dissection shines through the whole of the album, not just with the cover art or song titles. The band has indirectly employed the playstyle of the early, seminal works of the Swedish legends, yet without sounding identical, like e.g. the first three Thulcandra albums. Funeral Sanctum starts with a two minute guitar introduction “Dying Embers”, which is quite reminiscent of the opening in Storm of the Light’s Bane, and could hit a sensitive nerve for the fans of that band. For a few seconds, the initial melodies of “Serpentine Shadows” bring Dissection’s “Frozen” in mind, while pieces like “Blood of Abomination”, “Endless Fall” and the self-titled track are open love letters to the Swedish melo-black scene, and especially bands such as Necrophobic / Unanimated.
Nevertheless, Funeral Sanctum does not roam too far from the band’s death metal foundations, starting from the deep growls of Tony Thomas, which have remained intact compared to previous albums. The more evident death metal patterns borrow elements from the early Finnish scene and specifically Depravity / Funebre, while a few of the more middle-paced sections here and there could be distantly related to Convulse's debut. There’s wonderful solos in the record, smoothly blended in the enveloping co-dominion of melodic black and death metal, most successfully showcased in “Decaying Angelic Flesh” and “Black Wings of Desolation”, the record's highlights. Additionally, clocking at barely one minute, the strikingly short “Endarkened Spirits” is really well made and stands out as a tune that runs in a grindcore time frame, without sounding anything like grindcore.
On the other hand, the record may leave a sense of holding back a bit at times. This can partially be attributed to its production, which is otherwise fairly organic, yet it doesn’t really carry out a hard-hitting impact as was the case with a few, older releases from Witch Vomit. For instance, the band’s EP Abhorrent Rapture from 2021 had an absolutely devastating sound, and still contained some of their melodic explorations (namely in the track “Necrometamorphosis”) that fully manifest themselves now in Funeral Sanctum. The band maintains their regular runtime of approximately 30 minutes, which is optimal for old school death metal, but maybe not for this novel prototype album. Since the more melodic elements find their way into the compositions, the more time is necessary for the music to establish itself, I believe Funeral Sanctum would come across fuller and more plentiful in content with another 5 - 10 minutes of music, especially considering that the second interlude “Abject Silence” felt like a filler moment for me.
Be that as it may, the album’s overall impression is fairly positive and shows how Witch Vomit are not only continually driven, but also well-versed in direct and filthy, as well as melodic extreme metal. The band pays a tribute to classic bands from the northern hemisphere but doesn’t lose its character in the process, and what Funeral Sanctum does really well is merging the different elements it consists of. This kind of compositions, with these vocals on top of the instrumentation, still preserve the band's identity and result in an overly decorous offering by them. Fans of all the aforementioned references and artists will most likely have a feast on Funeral Sanctum, as they should.
