Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
After a mere handful of days since premiering the title track of their new EP, ‘Tenebrous Labyrinth‘, Denver-based trio of impenitent metallers Pile Of Priests returns.
Not just return either but return bearing gifts of gruesome cargo for our listening enjoyment, with said EP streaming in full below.
The trio, Evan Salvador (guitars, vocals), Patrick Leyn (bass), and Evan Knight (drums), self-released the effort on Nov. 24th, aka Black Friday. They could not have selected a more appropriate day or time to bequeath this blasphemous savage assault of technically proficient death metal either.
The rampant brutality riddling this thing with sheer, unbridled aggression, and wretched heaviness is a thing most enjoyable indeed.
Consisting of six songs altogether, three originals and three reinterpretations of old school classics, the content makes for a profound experience of death metal present and past. The originals, title track “Tenebrous Labyrinth“, “Kafir“, and “Interglacial Departure“, are plenty abrasive, but also contain an abundant amount of progressive elements.
Their caustic, contemptuous attack on mediocrity is done with energetic zeal and aggressive aplomb. Ever-changing time signatures and levels of intensity govern the severity with which they wound you, and the occasionally altered vocal styling only adds to their overall damage.
As for the trio of tracks covered by Pile Of Priests for this offering, they immediately took me back to my own mid-twenty-somethings. There is no sense dissecting them here piece by piece, suffice to say they are damned fine reworkings. Ultimately, they provide the connecting tether between the hey-day of death metal and now, but I will share with you what they are: Coroner’s “Divine Step“, Sadus’ “Through The Eyes Of Greed and Kreator’s “Hate Inside Your Heart“.
Impressive, huh? I think so too, and I invite you to step into the damnable darkness within Pile Of Priests‘ ‘Tenebrous Labyrinth‘ now if you dare.
It awaits you below and is also available for purchase now on the band’s Bandcamp page.
