Hailing from Denmark, SULPHUROUS are a band combining the darkest elements of metal to create an all-consuming death metal machine with one mission; to obliterate all in its path! Everything about the band's presentation is gritty, dark, and screams old school death metal. I've always had a soft spot for this kind of music so I couldn't wait to get into it!

"The Black Mouth Of Sepulchre" opens with "Emanated Trepidation". The beginning to this song is like an insert from a horror movie. The orchestral strings shatter the silence in the air and truly is haunting! If that wasn't enough to get the senses heightened, then the absolute thunderstorm that succeeds it should be! There's nothing but absolute old school death metal brutality on display. Try to imagine CRYPTOPSY and CANNIBAL CORPSE conspiring to create an unholy super band, and you come close! The fast paced sections underpinned by some fine blast beats are combined intermittently with some much slower doom metal sections, for some fine contrast.

A lot of what could be said for the previous song can be said for "Dry Breath of the Tomb". This is another dark yet beautiful assault on the ear drums. Some of the guitar work is much more technical this time. The vocalist continues to sound like a man possessed with that fearsome demonic growl. The distorted piano riff to open "Shadows Writhing like Black Wings" is the most haunting segment on this album yet, which really says something! Again, it conjures up images of a horror movie scene, the sort where you'd see a young terrified victim wandering obliviously through a dark haunted house, oblivious to the danger lurking within the shadows. From out of those shadows, our ear drums are attacked by another thunderstorm of guitar, bass and drums in extreme metal mode! The song later slows down and leans closer to the doom end of the metal spectrum. We hear more chugging and groovier components which makes for a more interesting rhythm section. After 4 minutes, I thought the song was over. How wrong I was! I was sat in my rocking chair when I was listening to this, and found myself rocking back and forth to the solid groove laid down by all instruments. The solo that ends the song truly is remarkable!

The band NILE were a huge influence on younger me, and a gateway band to the extreme side of metal. Listening to this solo - derived from the Egyptian suspended pentatonic scale - was a throwback to that time when I first discovered NILE and extreme metal. I was really happy to hear another band recreate this magic! By this point, I was hooked and wasted no time hitting play on the next song, "Eyes Glaring Black Fury". The lead guitar is much brighter in this song, and truly gets chance to shine. Which is welcomed. The pace slows down in the last 20 seconds or so, which gives us a chance to catch our breath before the next round of brutality.

"The Black Mouth of Sepulchre" wastes no time getting into a delicious guitar riff, a technical death metal clinic! We see more doom metal riffage throughout the song too. I have to confess, I was starting to think the album was getting a bit repetitive at this point. It's harder for any of the songs to have any real uniqueness or identity, which is a shame because the album really did start off so strongly! Similarly with "Gazing Into the Patch of Darkness", for me there's not much in this song that separates it from the rest. That being said, the closing piano riff was most welcome! I was so glad to hear it again, as it's something I haven't heard for a very long time - if ever - in the death metal genre! A chilling end to what's been a rollercoaster of an album.

Individually, any song from "The Black Mouth Of Sepulchre" would be a fantastic representation of the genre and for the band. I could see any song holding its weight on a compilation style album with other death metal bands. As a collective of songs in one album however, I did find myself losing interest towards the end, which is a shame because it started off ever so strong! Utilizing the piano inserts is a great idea though and helps to break up the album. Also, I feel like the low end of both the bass and kick drum (in fact the drums all together) gets lost in the mix, and overall the presentation isn't as polished as it perhaps could be. That being said, "The Black Mouth Of Sepulchre" was an enjoyable listen. I found it to be strangely relaxing, almost like a dark wave washing over me and allowing me to become immersed in death metal euphoria for 30 minutes or so. I definitely will be looking deeper into the band's back catalogue because I certainly want to hear more.