Back in the second half of the 80's, I came to know about Chile's Metal scene, when VULCANO made some shows there in 1987 or 1988 (I'm taking it from my memory, so don't ask for such degree of precision), so where there are gigs, there are local bands as well. But on South America, is hard to have albums from bands of other neighbor countries released here, and I don't have a deeper knowledge of Chile's Metal scene history (a consequence of the colonialism that I'd like to talk about in a deeper way in the future). But to hear a work as "Death Return", of the quartet APOSTASY, is really a very good opportunity to understand a bit more about my 'hermanos' scene.

They can be said as a Thrash/Black Metal band with an Old School appeal (as some Chilean bands of the genre that I heard before), exploring a crude and nasty approach influenced by bands as SODOM, DESTRUCTION, KREATOR, SLAYER and others of the 80's, but with a personal approach full of energy and with a good technical level. But as they're veterans on the scene (the band was founded on 1989), it's not hard to understand why their musical work is done in such way, but some later influences entered their music (from Black Metal of the 90's). Be prepared to have your ears destroyed!

The album was recorded between May 2020 and February 2021 (during the most nasty time of COVID-19 pandemic here on South America), being produced by the band and with the guitarist Sebastian taking care of the engineering and mixing, and the mastering was done at Lamech Sound Design (Sweden). The result is something that keeps the Old School elements of their music, and the instrumental tunes as well, but in a way that can be understood by the listeners, with evident aggressiveness and weight. It's not 100% what their music deserves, but's good. And the cover is really amazing, a fine work of Arkadiusz Zajac (from Poland).

Be prepared by their musical assault, because songs as "Death Return" (a massive and fast song, with very good guitar riffs and solo duels), "Jus Primae Noctis" (that shows excellent slow parts, with the grunts contrasting with Old School riffs), "Son of Hate" (some creative rhythmic changes can be heard, with a heavy weight work of bass guitar and drums, and some morbid melodies are coming from the guitars), "The Great Apostasy - The Night" (their instrumental technique is really refined, and the slow parts are amazing once more), and "Obey the Antichrist" (some excellent keyboards interventions can be heard in some moments) will crush your spine! It's a festival of headbanging songs!

As "Death Return" states, APOSTASY is really a strong name in the Chilean scene, so give it a chance, and go to the band's Bandcamp and spin the album. You won't regret it!