With eight albums under their belt, Daniel Corchado and Antonio León have succeeded in making a major comeback album ‘The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow’ that climaxes with superb songwriting skills. The unexpected return to the occult spectrum of death metal revives the legacy with the old school idioms. While the previous 2017 album ‘A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain – Phase I’ was entirely instrumental, the 9th album isn’t really a sequel. In fact, it is more in the terms of the older styles of the band. Just after the short instrumental intro ‘Return of the End (The Ancient Spirit that makes me Aware)’ gives rise to the menacing vocals, out from their uncanny sonic craft the guitars offer otherworldly riffs.

‘A Keen but Empty Sight’ stems from the primal signature style. The atmosphere is laden with an eerie rhythm to present the complexity. The riffs on the album are spectacular: each track has the ability to possess the listener with solid remarkable riffs. The Chasm defines the uncanny sense of primordial death metal that seems to be carried by the sharp throaty vocals and machine-gun blast beats that funnel like a tornado. The songwriting resembles none but its own played in the raw and old school flair of the Latin style of death metal. There are some clear influences from early Morbid Angel in terms of riffing, ‘Specter of the Arcane Recognition’ holds such raw aggression and manages to display the unique peculiar qualities of the guitars. There is a minimal focus on the atmosphere that makes the songs raw.

The harmony between the lead guitars and riffs shows the traditional old-school death metal. Riffs surge along with the wave of blistering drums. Whereas the quality of the riffing is deeply rooted in the occult nature and endowed lofty scale of arcane qualities, the thundering percussion is textured with jarring harmonies that center on the harsh percussion. ‘An Occult Gift Responds’ lends phantasmal enchantment to the listener as the guitars deliver ancient rhythms of the otherworldly darkness. The sheer power and the dexterous scale of placing memorable riffs eschew any modern bullshit. An eerie atmosphere wafts in the slower passages while the rhythm imbues dark melodies and damned infectious hooks. Melodic lead guitars go above and beyond to excel at creating an exotic backdrop while barrages of smoldering riffs loom over the powerful percussion attack. The Chasm slowly uncovers its occult spectra with the instrumental track ‘The Constellations Stagger’ which begins with a mind-blowing melodic intro and the slower sections that bring the kind of thrill to the old school fans.

There are some influences from progressive rock but the death metal trend prevails. The drums have the ability to keep the tempo changing. The guitar harmonies work as a backdrop to the song adding a sense of cosmic gloominess. ‘A Chronicle from the Parallel World’ is textured with thick guitar harmonies. The song is packed with sharp tremolo prose through the vicious growls. ‘The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow’ captures the old school aesthetics, offering classic composition of semi-complex riffs and simultaneously emphasizing the organic instrumentation. Songs are highly sophisticated and twisted. The result is a robust blend of the early albums. The Chasm on its newest album reflects on the back catalogue.

‘The Paths that Led to the Abysm’ is another instrumental song that injects a lethal dose of significant death/thrash riffs into the song structure, giving this a purely old-school and dynamic thrash metal vibe reminiscent of old Sepultura. ‘The Nightfall Ills with Deathly Symbols’ focuses on the same notions that bring many classic thrash metal bands to mind. The clear influences of Slayer and Kreator are embedded into the songwriting. Even though the 9th album is diverse and varied in many ways, it somehow finds the solid groundings that make it different from what the band released in the past. The songs are less complex, straightforward and organically boasted with death and thrash metal instincts.

The grand album’s closure ‘The Funeral Cortege: Sepulchre:/Final Flight of the Hateful Raven/Portal to the Isolated Domain’ is quite a mouthful of a song title, that is described as an arcane and archaic exploration of the old albums. The ominous intro of the guitars feels like you are marching across the vast domains of the supernatural realms.

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