Description

What to make of Brazils Dark Celebration and its sophomore full-length, Phlegeton: The Transcendence of Demon Lords; that is indeed the question. Its actually not that complicated. First and foremost, the vibe is one of vintage death metal with blackened edges and an atmosphere that approaches that whole Latin American dark n dirty death metal quality that is no doubt developed from worshipping at the altars of the ancients. As far as delivery and songwriting are concerned, its not-too-shabby old school brutality with melodic (in an obsidian kind of way) flourishes. In a very general sense, Abominant is the first group that comes to mind for comparison purposes, except Dark Celebration is a darker and somewhat looser act, making the references to The Chasm at least partially accurate. On the up side, the seven tracks are not only blasphemous and blast beaten, but also relatively varied. A dual vocal approach with an emphasis on the mid-to-high range vocals, smartly accented and/or accompanied with low-end growls join a blur (as in both hellish cyclone and treble-heavy blurriness) of riffage and whirlwind drumming that is organic; unfortunately, the kicks get lost in the mix. In a holistic sense, the album has a powerful, piping-hot runaway-train-to-Hell way about it, which compensates for relatively uneven songwriting. Qualifying though, there are no bad songs on this one, only a few that could use some work in the arrangement department. While success is achieved on tracks like Reversed Creation, Sulphur, and Ocularis Infernum, it is on a tune like Legacy of Fire where good intentioned ambition results in some weak moments, namely the awkward flat even melody, and the odd use of interspersed spoken vocals. There is something a tad askew about the guitar harmony on Souls Harvester Machine too, the track also appearing on the Dark Celebration split with Sodamned entitled The Damned Celebration. Phlegeton: The Transcendence of Demon Lords is a decent enough disc; I just found that it could use some tweaking.

Track listing:
1. Reversed Creation
2. Sulphur
3. Ocularis Infernum
4. Infra Dark
5. Legacy of Fire
6. Razors Dance
7. Souls Harvester Machine