Of all the underground Death Metal scenes in the world, Chile has one of the most impressive, boasting bands of many different subgenres excelling in their own ways. One of these bands is MERIDION, and their debut album, "Rise from the South", is a chaotic flow of dark, cavernous Death Metal in the lines of HATE ETERNAL or IMMOLATION.

Right off the bat, the production is seemingly awful. The first minute and a half of "The Battle of Death" is full of the worst production, but this quickly changes from absolutely horrendous to only slightly bad once the riffs become more complex. Maybe they gave the first minute of the album terrible production to make the rest of the album sound better produced. If that was the case, it worked.

The second thing one might notice is that this album is just straight-up weird. There are very experimental things going on with this album, like when "Austral Strength" has a random, deflated-sounding saxophone at the very end (not the best touch but certainly attention-grabbing). Or when every song has some sort of unusual sound effect behind the instrumentals to give it a darker sound.

"Invocation of the Subterranean Sun" is another example of this. The track starts and ends with the same quirky sound effects: some horn-sounding instrument playing some notes over wailing guitars. The overall song is interesting as well, featuring a gloomy interlude with some sort of bell for maximum effect.

It's quite difficult to choose a favorite track from this record because the album as a whole is one entity. The riffs are chaotic, and the atmosphere is cacophonous with the eeriest possible sound effects and raw production, both of which help round off the dark, bleak feeling that this album encompasses.

The riffs often sound as if they were inspired by the gloom of an insane asylum and the vocals and voiceovers were extracted from the dying breath of a tortured man. Really, everything on this album is a lot to take in while simultaneously being central to one theme: chaos.

What is presented on "Rise from the South" is monstrous and deadly, not for the faint of heart. It is the darker reincarnation of MORBID ANGEL and the Grimm version of NILE. At just 27 minutes, it is a short adventure, but its length makes it all the more bitter. Do not tread lightly down this path, for it will not tread lightly on you.