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TERATOMA “Longing Voracity”
TERATOMA “Longing Voracity”
By Lord Randall
To say “Purulent Manifestations” of 2021 caused the death metal world to sit up and take notice is an understatement, TERATOMA’s initial independent crusher being released by no less than five labels in all imaginable formats within two years of its arrival. Now, just over four years later, we find the Berliners on Me Saco Un Ojo Records out of London, and ready to (hopefully) cause damage with “Longing Voracity”.
I’m not a fan of needless, unrelated intros as a rule, but “Exordium” transudes smoothly into the title track opener, neither out of place nor overstaying its welcome. There’s immediately a feeling of death metal classicism here, winding chords and twisting rhythms, a voice dredged up from Challenger Deep, and a solo lends an aura of the disjointed to the affair letting us know that TERATOMA knows where it came from and respects its ancestry. “Chaotic Bewilderment” lives up to its name, a churlish, Neanderthal mid-pace, and a riff from 2:10-2:35 that will truncheon your ears long after we’ve moved on through the blues-flavored solo and been utterly dilapidated by the coda.
Plodding yet portentous, the doomed beginning of “Circle Of Perdition” quickly slams into a frenetic firestorm worthy of KRABATHOR, only to return the ground ‘n’ pound, then back to roiling and deadly death, driving the name of the track through your skull with force. What I was not expecting, however, was the unabashedly and truly exquisite instrumentation of “Interim”, exposing the band as more than competent arrangers, a strange JETHRO TULL mood conjured within the song and the listener. “Festering Realm” opens before us, pustulant and rabid, seeping septic soundscapes unfolding only to envelop us into its dreaded embrace.
Ending with the cavernous “Stertorous Whisper”, the German quintet has crafted a passage through the Hells in musical form. Definitely beholden to the classics of the genre’s formation but grasping at – and often finding – that thing that will set TERATOMA apart. Fans of the aforementioned KRABATHOR, WOMBBATH’s “Internal Caustic Torments”, and Sunlight Studios should stop reading and purchase “Longing Voracity”.
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