Country: Chile (Iquique)
Genre: Old School Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Winter Records
For fans of: Incantation, Demigod, Grave Miasma, Gorement, early Amorphis, Immolation.
The Rotten Tomb from Chile, a band formed in 2016 (with members who served time in the death/thrashers Atomicide), return with their third full-length album. “Vestiges of Tortured Souls” is a descent into absolute darkness, a work that explores human fear in the face of the inevitability of death. Questioning social traditions and the rituals surrounding loss, the band proposes an acceptance of mortality through a prism of raw nihilism. Musically, this is a claustrophobic, imposing death metal monument that pulses with energy, incorporating lethal doom elements and dark melodies.
Tracks
- Horror Manifestations (03:43)
- Condemned Reality (04:31)
- Lost Memories (04:46)
- Waiting, Dying (04:24)
- Mortified (03:43)
- Mind of Chaos (03:51)
- Here Lies Death (04:27)
- Ancestral Perservation (04:19)
- Human Pyre (05:04)
REVIEW : The Latin American scene, and especially Chile’s, has proven countless times that it knows how to play death metal exactly as it should be played: dirty, rotten and without mercy. Rotten Tomb are clearly one of the finest examples of that school. After their sweeping debut “Visions of a Dismal Fate” (2022) and the great “The Relief of Death” (2024), their third strike proves once and for all that these guys are not joking in the slightest.
On “Vestiges of Tortured Souls”, the band takes the American murk (see Incantation / Immolation) and grafts onto it the frozen, melodic touches of the Scandinavian sound (think the sheer heft of Amorphis’ “The Karelian Isthmus” or the darkness of Demigod). The album grabs you by the face with the opening “Horror Manifestations”, which lands like a steamroller, showing their intentions. Deathbringer’s vocals are simply terrifying — deep, monstrous growls that set the pace for this maniacal assault. A huge role in all that sonic weight is of course played by the flawless, organic production of Pablo Clares at DM6 Studios, which makes the result sound as suffocating as it should.
If you’re a fan of pure, unadulterated Death Metal, this release is already among the year’s top listens.
