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EVIL SPIRIT
Cauldron Messiah

Horror (2014)
Rating: 8.5/10

Have you ever spent the night in a haunted house and been plagued by the infernal clanking of chains or the rattle of a musty old skeleton? Well, if not, then it’s time to enter the creepy domain of one Evil Spirit; a bludgeoning, blackened doom metal coven which bestow all the spooky drama of a midnight séance upon your petrified soul.

This gang of ghouls haunt the ancient forests of Germany but do not come in peace with their ominous trudge of suspenseful occult extremity. Three members make up this hair-raising clan; firstly there is vocalist / drummer Marcelo Aguirre, and he’s accompanied by axeman (in the literal sense!) Ari Almeida, and finishing off this monster squad is bass butcher Saäth Nokr.

Once you’ve dropped the needle on their debut force it will be time to hide behind the sofa, but this opus is going to cause not just a shiver and shake, but a bloody quake! Cauldron Messiah serves up a menu of seven tracks, all of which are daubed in mysticism and morgue-like atmospherics and then squeezed out through some cosmic filter by way of a strangled doom dementia. This is very loud, and very heavy – no doubt created to echo around the cold walls of many a cesspit, and with an extra sprig of horror delirium Evil Spirit conjures up all manner of nocturnal predators which’ll render you speechless and sleeping with one eye open.

So, it’s very much a doom metal affair delivered in creaking, quicksand fashion and yet tinged with esoteric philosophy where the combo ambles about the dungeon like some greatly furred, and bloodied abomination hell-bent on sucking the life out of its victims. Vocally, it’s a titanic, tyrannical performance of gargantuan quality; a looming, leering narrator of storming evil is Mr. Aguirre who – amidst his own fungoid percussion – ponders all manner of mysteries and evil episodes.

Thankfully it’s not all painfully slow; the trio is more than happy to up the pace every now and then so as to add extra silt to its theatre of blood, but it’s all so bloody eerie and terrifying that by the time you’ve wormed your way past the wrought-iron gates of the decadent ‘Intro (Him The Almighty Power)’ you’ll be literally crapping yourself for fear of meeting the Reaper on this mist-enshrouded night.

How can an album instil such a dread? Well, the answers are all here with the likes of the epic sprawls of ‘Grey Ashes Of The Reptile’ and ‘Let The Dragon Be My Guide’, while the shorter instalments of ‘Eve Of The Beholder’ and the peculiarly titled ‘Push Angie Back Into The Swamp’ do little to reduce the fear factor as like some cosmic sloth Evil Spirit conjures up another portion of phantasmal doom in the shape of ‘Reino Sangrento’ and the suffocating title track – which oozes across your soul like some wretched incubus / succubus dependent on your bodily fluids.

It’s masterfully sinister and as demented as many a doom-coated creation, but as an entity it doesn’t take any chances in aping what has already come before, so exists on some separate peat-covered plateau where should it grow hungry then will no doubt feast on its own nightmares.

As current doom metal albums go, Cauldron Messiah is expertly crafted but also despicable in its writhing. While I appreciate of the terrors created in 70s suspense, it also has the ability to construct its own unique fortress of fear. And for that bone-shuddering talent, this band must be commended and then worshipped at the altar of doom.

Neil Arnold

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