Review by Trevor Proctor.
Oniricous is a Spanish Death Metal band that performed under the name Ghül from 2005-2011 then as Oniricous from 2011 onwards. Their first release under the name Oniricous was debut full length Ritos Diabólicos which was released on CD by Razorback Recordings in April 2013. Ritos Diabólicos was very well received, so well received that it prompted Spanish label Equinox Discos to release a vinyl version in June 2015. It was on release of this version the band first came to my attention, thanks to Eduardo from Equinox who was kind enough to send me a promotional copy. I was very impressed with Oniricous on first listen; Ritos Diabólicos is a very strong album and fully deserved the vinyl release from Equinox Discos.
Since then Eduardo and I have kept in touch and to be honest I was hoping I’d be given access to Oniricous’ second album, ‘La Caverna de Fuego’ on its release in April of this year. Thankfully this was the case and I’d like to express my gratitude to Eduardo for doing so. The exceptional artwork for ‘La Caverna de Fuego’ is the creation of Juanjo Castellano who in the past has designed cover art for Anal Vomit, Blaspherian, Demoncy and Unleashed among many others. The album was mastered by Patrick W Engel who in the past has mastered music for too many bands to list but including Grave Miasma’s Exalted Emanation EP and Goat Torment’s Dominande Tenebrae. The album was recorded and mixed by Javier Félez who also has extensive experience and in the past has worked with Teitanblood, Sartegos and Horrified.
Oniricous play a mid to high tempo, straight forward, no nonsense style of Death Metal based on Lovecraftian themes and perform all vocals in Spanish – which incidentally doesn’t detract whatsoever from their music. The band currently performs as a four piece with Tony performing bass, Tillo drums and Chuster on lead guitar and vocals. Al-Wars joined the band in 2016 and performs rhythm guitar.
Once Oniricous dispense with a short intro it’s straight down to business as they launch into Dentro del Féretro which gives you a nice taster as to what to expect from their music – high tempo and high quality Death Metal – there’s nothing new or unexpected about their style of Death Metal but there doesn’t need to be – why rewrite the rule book if it doesn’t need it? Including the intro there’s a total of eleven tracks to get your teeth into and one thing that’s very noticeable throughout is how well the two guitarists work together. Newest guitarist, Al-Wars, complements Chuster’s lead work exceptionally well by maintaining a solid riff-heavy foundation whilst Chuster storms off in all manner of directions with plenty of intricate and speedy solos – as a unit you’d think they’d been playing together for years - the lead work and solos are as good as they are frequent with sterling leads in most tracks. Oniricous’ music is classed as Death Metal but on several occasions their sound owes as much to thrash as it does death due to that high tempo and the thrash-esque solos. Whilst the album is fairly intense Oniricous prove they can do intros / short interludes well with Tenebre, a short acoustic number that shows a mellower side I’d like to hear a little more of on future releases. The album is extremely well produced and recorded with all instruments audible and playing their part in the mix along with some truly fantastic vocals from Chuster.
This is solid, head banging music and as stated, there’s nothing here to re-write the rule books in terms of originality but that’s not the aim and what Oniricous bring is a very upfront style of no nonsense Death Metal, a style that also doesn’t require too much description. A very strong second album from a very talented Death Metal band, I suggest you give Oniricous’ two albums a listen, if you’re into Death Metal from the early 1990’s you’ll love their music – just listen to Dentro Del Féretro below and you’ll see what I mean.
A solid 7.5/10.
Tracklist:
01 – Intro
02 - Dentro del féretro
03 – Dagón
04 - Los abismos del éter
05 – Moribundo
06 - La última puerta
07 - La caverna de fuego
08 – Tenebre
09 - Ruinas ancestrales
10 - Tras el cristal
11 – Sacrificio.
No comments:
Post a Comment