Flagelo is quite a small band, hailing from Columbia, and not even Metallum can pinpoint when they formed. Grouped with almost zero social media presence, and under 100 monthly listeners on Spotify, Flagelo is a mysteriously underground ensemble. They've released their first effort, "Insatiable," via Night Terrors Records earlier this year, and their sound can be described as a black/death metal blend, with some dissonance and doom to go with. Not much to go off of for background info, so it's time to dig right in to this 25-minute curiosity.

I usually listen to the singles of an album before the rest of the album, but since no teasers were teased, I'm jumping straight into the opener, "Insaciable." A rather short track, opening with distant, pounding drums and a doomy atmosphere. This track may be where they got their death doom metal label, as the short song takes ages to finish. It's loud, obnoxious, and it gets even louder. The second track is another smaller song, as "Viral" is just under two minutes long. The song reeks of grindcore, with endless blast-beaten drums, relentless tempo and unintelligible vocals. That explains the runtime, too. Not much to point out about a grindcore-style song, as it's pretty much self-explainable. I mean, it's just THERE. Bombastic gutturals seem to combat against the snare, and the song ends abruptly. The tracks gradually increase in length, with "Rey de Nada" reaching 4:48. The song seems to have slowed down the grind elements a bit, but the grimy vocals just aren't doing it for me. The dissonant instrumentals remind me of the sound of bands such as Ulcerate, and maybe even a little bit of "Obscura"-era Gorguts, minus the cool parts. Everything feels spacious in sound, yet so full of noise.

The final two songs really started to test my patience. "Historia Animal" reaches a little under seven minutes, and "Esablon" just under eight. The rolling drumming is quite nice, plodding on and on, but after a while, it just comes off as a little boring. The song calms down a little bit at the 2:20 mark, but it only makes me realize how much more of the same I have to endure. The rest of the track moves slowly, with some decent, haunting guitar solos. The final song only elongates what I've already heard, and there's really not much to point out throughout it's time to "shine." Slow, monotonous, dark, etc.

Overall, I get why Flagelo haven't really seen the light of day yet. Their mix of tiringly sludgy and doomy songs grew old. At least the grindcore-style track had some energy to it. I hear great talent amongst the guys of Flagelo, but it just isn't for me. You can grab a hold onto this EP from their Bandcamp, ceremonially priced for six dollars and sixty-six cents.