Chthonic Deity feature members of Blood Incantation, Ascended Dead and Scolex, though none of those prepares you for their sound. It’s perhaps closest to the latter, avoiding the cosmic progression and chaotic nature of the others. Instead, the trio wade through filth on new song “Echoes of Death,” which funnels death and a bit of doom through punk and adds some of that Stockholm stink for good measure.
It’s a little cavernous, but the Swedish sway adds a bit more than most that rise from the murk. The crush of Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum or Colorado contemporaries Spectral Voice come to mind in feel. Despite arriving this Halloween on the Reassembled in Pain EP, the song is nearly six years old.
“‘Echoes of Death’ is a song that I wrote on the spot while jamming with Charlie in January of 2014,” explains guitarist/bassist/vocalist Erika Osterhout. “The tempo changes fell into place and it felt like the song wrote itself. I knew exactly where I wanted to write a solo and once that was put into place the lyrics came easily. The lyrics are inspired by the intensity and mystery of ancient beliefs regarding the judgment of life and the process of death — of being deemed worthy of the glory of the perfect afterlife or to be unworthy and endure the agonizing pain of the second death and cursed to be restless forever.”
Listen to the song in the player below. You can pre-order the four-song release on cassette via Osterhout’s Lunar Tomb Records. Though the 7-inch vinyl is currently sold out through Carbonized Records, both Lunar Tomb and guitarist/vocalist Paul Riedl’s Woodsmoke Records will have copies closer to release date. The wax is still available via Europe’s Dawnbreed Records, though.
