SEPULCROS is a death/doom metal band from Portugal and "Vazio" is their full length debut.  "Vazio" is one dark, dismal, and suffocating beast of an album.  Every element of the band, from the vocals to the production, is poured into this album to create such a sunken, void sound and the result is huge.  The album's flow is well crafted-six tracks with a run time of thirty seven minutes.  This perfect length just begs for many repeated listens.  However, it isn't just the run time of the album that helps with the flow but the songs themselves, specifically the intro and the outro.

So many bands just tack on short tracks on either end of an album without any real regard to what it means for the album as a whole—they just come off as pointless filler and a huge waste of my time as a reviewer.  However, "Vazio" does not have this problem as both the intro and outro tracks are very important to the album's overall sound.  "Involucro Oco," starts the album off with a chilling landscape that builds anxiety and tension—and it segues right into the first track to become an essential companion to it.   That title track plays off the themes cemented by the intro so they both serve their purpose of complimenting each other and opening the album up for the listener.
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he outro, "Humana Vacuidade," beings where the previous track, "Hecatombe," ends.  As it should, the outro carries on the atmosphere and themes, thus closing the album in complete silence at its conclusion.  Interesting enough, considering the album starts in silence as well, "Humana Vacuidade" actually brings the album to a full circle. As such, the album is perfect for listening straight through instead of a piecemeal basis.  However, the meat of the album are the four full length tracks and they are definitely worthy of being played in such a way.

The title track "Vazio," is a bottomless pit of despair, it fully enthralled me within its dark clutches.  It is a testament to SEPULCROS' song writing skills that such heavy handed death/doom song can completely seduce using its own secluded darkness.  In essence, "Vazio" (both the album and the song) isn't great death/doom for the sake of it.  It is great death/doom because these guys really understand the genre and know exactly what to put into it.

The vocals are well performed and work well within the confines of the mixing/production.  They are deep, evil, and act as their own instrument by blending into the wall of sound with the rest of the band.  Each individual instrument is needed-if even one was left out, the song would change drastically. Around the 3:28 mark, the band suddenly goes into psycho mode for a display of balls out death metal carnage.  The drums made my brain feel like it was caving in (this album DEMANDS headphones) and I was almost exhausted by the time this part was over with. After the assault is finished, a musical landscape that can only be described as "black hole bottomless pit" digs in for more trance like passages.

"Marcha Funebre," begins as the title track fades out, further showing the clever connectivity in the song writing and revealing a secret: this album is a living monstrosity.   The drums and bass cast out drops of bleakness into fetid waters in the song's opening moments. This song takes on a dream like ambiance, while never for one second not delivering on death/doom, that is a journey into hell itself. It is more like a personal hell though, being lost inside and giving up all hope as you wonder your own pathetic wasteland. Hints of melody among these dying fields crop up around the halfway point but offer little salvation from the madness.  The next minute is rising action, the band pushing their sound harder and faster but never losing sight of its original intent. The riffs around the five minute mark are sonic battering rams that battle it out with the drums for supremacy but nothing survives the confrontation.

"Magno Caos," is more scary than it has a right to be and those well placed drums do much to raise the air on my arms.  Unsettling to say the least but it doesn't really get any better for mental health because the rest of the song is just as stressful. When the death growls kick in, the bottom drops out and the song just turns into this miasma of doom that suffocates everything. At the 6:42 mark, the song kicks into full attack mode with a total lost of sanity taking place on the senses.   A warped song if there ever was one (compliment).
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he final track before the outro is "Hecatombe," and it actually begins with clean guitar but there isn't any serenity upon the notes, just more deprivation.  As the song's tendrils reach out to grasp whatever life still clings in these caverns of death, the atmosphere sprawls out to a deadly zenith.  Harrowing screams and growls fill the dead air, boosted by thunderous bass and drums until the 5:30 mark where the band hits its stride for one of the most amazing, beautifully dark moments on the album.  From this point on to the end, the mind is hit with a variety of emotions and scenarios but none of them end with success but instead with utter finality of broken life.

"Vazio," is  a tremendous success both as a debut album and for death/doom period.  Just when I think the genre can't get anymore out there, just when the darkness seems to recede, an album likes this comes along and proves me wrong...of which I'm very thankful for.  Any fans of this style needs this album in your life, especially if you like bands like JUPITEREAN, NOCTU, CONVOCATION, RITES OF DAATH, ATRAMENTUS, and DESCEND INTO DESPAIR.