Astriferous are a new death metal four-piece from Costa Rica. Released only ten days ago on Bandcamp, Astriferous’ demo, titled Raise High the Scepter of Indulgence, has already claimed an alarming number of victims—especially for a band who’s yet to even be promoted, really. And it’s no wonder. These newcomers have a penchant for dynamic song compositions, riffs that drill deep into your brains, and plenty of good ol’ clobbering mockery of the mortal flesh. They don’t just play their songs. They attack you with them.
We caught up with Astriferous via email to get some more information on the latest band to dominate totally our skullspace. “Not many bands play the style of death metal we particularly enjoy around here, so we set out to craft music we would normally get excited to listen to, buy a record or see play live. It’s all about doing CRUSHING riffs and good death metal songs like the godfathers of the genre lay it out a long time ago,” writes the band as a unit.
It should come as no surprise that Astriferous’ members play in other killer bands as well. Most notably, drummer Jose Maria Arrea and guitarist/vocalist Federic Gutierrez both split their time between Astriferous and the inimical Bloodsoaked Necrovoid, while guitarist/vocalist Felipe Tencio also slays in the mind-breaking Corpse Garden. Along with bassist Andy Garrita, these three dubbed themselves Astriferous.
“We had the name on our minds for quite some time,” they say. “We wanted a single-word band name and since this word is an adjective to describe something bearing stars or made of celestial bodies we thought it would help us define the nature of the sound we wanted to achieve.”
They go on to talk about how they went about discovering their sound.
“At the beginning it was just getting together, listening to records we considered were specific references of the sound we were looking to create and then grabbing the guitars and coming up with riffs. We wrote the 4 songs for the demo with this method and started rehearsing later on last year when we finally put the full lineup together. So the music basically came out of direct inspiration from the bands we worship.” “We take inspiration from all scenes and styles of classic death metal but we are definitely more inclined towards the Finnish approach to the genre, so a big part of our idea for the band was to explore deeper the way bands such as Demigod, Adramelech, Demilich and Convulse played their style of death metal. We love Swedish death metal as well but we definitely didn’t want to take part in the Entombed worship, buzzsaw guitar tone wave of bands that’s come out recently. Swedish bands such as Desultory, Seance and Crematory are definitely influences. We are also big fans of US bands such as Autopsy, Immolation, Disincarnate, Incantation and the early works of Morbid Angel, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse.”
As for the lyrics and themes, Astriferous want to be clear: “We wouldn’t call it Satanism to be honest,” they say. “‘Negative Hesychasm’ particularly deals more with anti-christianity. We are just expressing how abandoning that oppressive idea is the real key to freedom and the expression of individuality rather than submitting and accepting it without question. The first and last songs of the demo both deal with subjects related to the philosophy of Thelema which has always been a big interest. Regarding ‘Mind Bending Distortions,’ we were looking to write about beings or a presence not perceivable by the human mind, limited only with 5 senses.”Astriferous’ demo was recorded at Saturno Music Studio. Sounding authentically raw, but still packing a heavy enough punch to hold you hostage for the demo’s duration and then some.
“We knew about the studio because of Liberosis [a band that also shares personnel with Astriferous] recording that took place a couple of weeks before we went in,” says the band. “We knew we wanted to record everything live to capture all the energy of the band, we dislike recording in parts or with a ‘click,’ everything should sound as live as possible like a rehearsal or a show and Saturno Music is one of the few places that allow that particular setup or frame of mind around Costa Rica.”
Regarding the physical manifestation of this killer demo, Astriferous say it’s only a matter of time now.
“We contacted Desert Wastelands via email and pitched our demo to them. Luckily, both Sean and Derek liked it so they were kind enough to offer a release of the demo on tape format. Due to a worldwide shortage of tapes, we are expecting them to start shipping around the first week of April. Pre-order is up now through the Desert Wastelands Bandcamp page.”Listening to Raise High the Scepter of Indulgence, it’s clear that while these young brutalizers may have their hearts buried in the past, their eyes are set on the future. The band is already at work on new material.
They promise: “More filth and death will come your way in the near future!”
