If you fancy yourself a fan of South American metal, then you may want to give BLOOD OATH some of your attention. This Death Metal band has been around since 2015, hailing from Concepción, Chile. In 2017, they released their debut EP "The Line Between." Now they've taken it a step further and released their debut studio album "Lost in an Eternal Silence." It was released through the American underground label Caligari Records. Overall, it's not a perfect album, but I'm going to tell you why it's still a darn good album too.

The very first few seconds of "Beyond the Dimensional Gates" aren't exactly what you would expect a Death Metal band to open an album with. The opening part briefly gives off a BLACK SABBATH-style Doom Metal sound. Then, BLOOD OATH starts to give us the whole nine of their Death Metal. First off, the drums were insane. Benjamín Soto's blast beats and double bass patterns were resounding, though the product quality could have also contributed to this. I felt the other instruments were drowned out by the drums, but you can still hear the ultrafast guitar riffs from Ignacio Canales and Ignacio Riveros. It's also worth noting here that the album's opener is the shortest track too, so no useless fills here.

"Sanctuary of Souls" and "Fateful Existence" evoke more Thrash Metal influences–a trajectory which continues on for the rest of the record. The blast beats and tremolo picking are mixed in with SLAYER-style beats from Benjamín Soto and shredding guitar solos from the guitarist(s). I was also impressed that I could hear the amazing bass riffs from Matías Canales. From my personal experience, I sometimes have difficulty hearing bass guitars in Death Metal, so this was a nice change for me. On the flip side, however, Ignacio Canales's vocals were too deep to understand. If you look up the lyrics for reference though, they are extremely dark with themes of fear, horror, the unknown, and madness. Canales's intense vocal delivery fits in with the lyrical themes even though it's incomprehensible. Another thing I will give BLOOD OATH credit for is their use of synthesizers, which they use at the end of the title track/closing track to bring "Lost in an Eternal Silence" to a close with a literal thunderclap.

"Lost in an Eternal Silence" is a good start for BLOOD OATH. It's their first album, so as I said, it's not perfect and has its mistakes. However, with extreme influences from Thrash Metal layered on top of the Chilean group's Death Metal, the album actually reminded me of Brazilian band SEPULTURA's third album "Beneath The Remains." Sure, "Lost in an Eternal Silence" doesn't come close to meeting SEPULTURA's standards. Nonetheless, even if this new album isn't quite to your taste, don't turn your back on BLOOD OATH. They may end up releasing another album that exceeds their first effort.