Ancient Crypts, Devoured by Serpents
Demos are supposed to be a little on the rough side. The production isn’t supposed to be great and the musicianship isn’t expected to be the best, but in every demo I’ve been presented with thus far, each track has been complete. That’s not the case for this tape from Chile’s Ancient Crypts and their Devoured by Serpents debut. Thankfully, the blasphemous, unholy racket contained within these four tracks is more than enough to overlook accidentally cutting short one of the better songs.
I don’t know what it is about bands from well south of the border, but they fully immerse themselves into their death metal. The 1990’s death metal sound on Devoured by Serpents isn’t really revolutionary in any way, but holy Hell is it ever fueled by a malevolent fervor. “Deep into the Ancient Crypts” opens up the album with two and half minutes of doomy riffage before unleashing the gates to some South American catacomb. Sounds of Incantation, Obituary and even some Grave bleed through the muddy production as pile-driving drums lead the way for evil riffage and snarling growls.
“Between the Mortuary Remains” is an absolute rager as no time is wasted right from the start. Heavy handed, rabid drumming and driving riffs will have your head snapping back and forth with a fury. This is one hell of a violent song and it’s just infectious as fuck. This is how I like my death metal — aggressive and delivered with more than a pinch of hatred. This song isn’t just a constant barrage of blasting drums, however. It settles down nicely for a bit before inexplicably ending at the 3:26 mark.
The title track carries a similar rhythm and tone as the previous song as Ancient Crypts expand their malevolent sound a bit with random guitar squeals and a more restrained tempo. The song is beefy and dense which unfortunately causes the vocals the fade into the churning miasma a bit too much. “Procession of Nyarlathotep” is a crawling, smoldering beast of a song that erupts violently with thrashing mayhem about two minute into the track.
As far as demos go, Devoured by Serpents is damn good. Ancient Crypts delivers old school death metal without becoming caught up in any of the stereotypical trappings that many of the new wave of bands have gotten themselves into. This music is swampy and malevolent. It certainly sets the stage nicely for a proper debut from these Chilean heathens.