Last Sacrament originally caught my attention with their first demo, Maniacal Meditations. Not only did they hail from Florida, but their music was both complex and kickass. I don't mean complex as in technical death metal. That's ridiculous and obnoxious complexity. Last Sacrament's complexity is more subtle. It's about keeping to the old school death metal formula while creating riffs that have an elaborate structure. It's been quite a while, but they finally released their first full-length, Enantiodromia, near the end of June of this year. Let's listen.
When compared to their first demo, this album sounds a lot more doomy in nature, sort of like Incantation. Even the growls remind me of Incantation. They have that deep, monstrous sound, as if emanated from a creature lurking within the Stygian depths. Parts of the music feel slow and plodding, like an infernal war march, but others are quite fast, featuring plenty of blast beats, double bass, and shredding riffs that remind me of early Deicide. The drums also throw in plenty of fills to keep things interesting.
Of course, since this is Last Sacrament we're talking about, we need to talk about the guitars. I still don't know what “microtonal” means, but all I know is that these riffs are awesome. One of the biggest things I like about Last Sacrament is that even though they're highly-skilled musicians, they still remain quite reserved about it. They only show off when the time is right. They mainly stick to playing old school death metal riffs, but they're still tastefully crafted and rather infectious at times. Some of the riffs remind me of Death, others remind me of Deicide, while others remind me of Nile.
The solos, on the other hand, are completely mind-boggling. They sound like the howls of extraplanar ghosts that swirl around in a maelstrom and consume all they come across. For some odd reason, some of the solos remind me of Sororicide. That's good, because I love Sororicide. My favorite solo has to be the one on “Seller of Souls”. It can best be described as something straight out of Allen West's wet dreams.
This album is amazing. Not only do they play some great old school death metal with grisly Incantation vocals, they also have awesome solos. The performance is dark and primal, but also brilliantly crafted and at times even infectious. Their songwriting skills would make the old guard proud. If you love Florida death metal with wicked solos, then Last Sacrament is for you. Let me tell you, Enantiodromia is one hell of a debut.
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