Band:	Sepulcros
Album:	Vazio
Style:	Atmospheric death metal, Death doom metal
Release date:	March 2021

01. Involucro Oco
02. Vazio
03. Marcha Funebre
04. Magno Caos
05. Hecatombe
06. Humana Vacuidade

Vazio (adjective - /va'ziʊ/): Empty, bare.

Vazio is an album completely empty of light, hope, and air.

Death doom metal is an overdone genre, there's no doubt about that, and the fact that it is often cheesy and way too melodic doesn't help. However, Sepulcros from Portugal unleash an almost entirely non-melodic, yet captivating version of death doom, in which the 'doom' is very slow, foreboding, and suffocating funeral doom metal, while the 'death' is pulverising, blastbeating, and vicious blackened death metal.

Sepulcros feature three members of Summon in their ranks and they share some common ground with Summon not only musically but also in the atmosphere they create. Said atmosphere is scarring and cavernous, and it is achieved both through the music's consistent capacity for immersion as well as through the production choice.

Indeed, the production is a massive plus for this album. The music sounds so layered, so thick, and it completely envelops you; it is all around you and you feel that it sucks all the air you are supposed to be breathing. There is a definitive blackened aesthetic to it which only makes Vazio's sound even more impactful.

This debut by Sepulcros takes no prisoners; its only saving grace is that it is just 37 minutes-long. It features an intro and outro track that are both short spine-chillers and four long tracks in between that create a suffocating landscape of total darkness, death, and doom. On these tracks the music begins as mountain-moving, tectonic plates-shifting doom metal and explodes into twisting, pummelling, and evil-sounding death metal before crawling back into a black hole of claustrophobic doom once more. This is the general motif of Vazio; if you don't mind the lack of variation as far as the structure and presentation of the songs are concerned, this album will haunt you.

I have saved the package for last. Let me ask you, isn't it great when bands pay attention to all the surrounding elements of their releases? I mean, look at the cover artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski. It is breathtaking and does justice to the time-warping music and the atmosphere that swallows you up. Even the band logo of Sepulcros is exquisite. On top of all that, this record also comes in special edition wooden boxes. What am I trying to say? That every aspect of Vazio is a work of art.

"Segue-me ao vazio" (Follow me into the void)