Label: Independent
Date: June 1st, 2023
We’ll stay in my home-city for a while. You just had the opportunity to read a review of the probably youngest ensemble coming from there. And now time for musicians with the biggest experience in playing extreme metal has come. Dammnatorum is in some way continuation (the truth is it’s for about a lot of years of non-plating, at least in, let’s call it, organized way) bands who created the scene in Bydgoszcz – especially in cases of bassist/vocalist and a drummer who started their adventures with their instruments yet in eighties in Scarecrow. It wasn’t the first ever metal group existing in the city on Brda river, but probably the second one. So, you can see these guys are real living legends of the local metal scene! Anyways, Dammnatorum was born in 2018 and “In Umbra Mortis” is practically their debut, released independently and available, as I know, only digitally last year. Well, it’s not a very fresh album, because the date of its premiere was June 1st, last year, but since the very most of us, if we take away me and other maniacs coming from Bydgoszcz, then probably all, hear the first time name of the band… The proof of this thesis is a very modest number of plays, on the oldest and I somehow think the most popular portal dedicated to spreading videos. It was actually one more reason why I decided to write this review. By the way, I wrote “practically” because they have also released the same way single “Tenebrae”, 2020.
You can enjoy ten songs of real, fucking death metal with some black metal touches during listening to this album. And I tell you only one thing. I absolutely can’t understand why the hell mentioned above is so low (especially something like one percent is my share)! I know guys created Dammnatorum and “In Umbra…” just for fun of playing music they love, giving shows and so on (you have another approach to the matter when you create the band at such an age), so that’s not their fault at all. But this creativity has really good quality and that’s why I’m confused that the news about this stuff didn’t spread word of mouth among fans. Well, hopefully this scribble will change the situation at least a little bit. Well, this full-length isn’t anything edge-breaking or changing metal music itself, but at the same time, it’s a very tasty piece mentioned before a sub-genre of our beloved music. Everything’s here just like it should be in such playing. Riffs are broken, brutal and change often, for some of you maybe it’ll be too often. Why? Because not everyone likes such jawbreakers. There’s of course some sick melody in them, some guitar tricks here and there. That’s also technically advanced, but to appreciate it, you must listen a little more carefully to the stuff. Well, actually the same thing I can say about drumming. You haven’t heard some developed passages and stuff, but at the same time that’s very advanced technically. Bass of course follows drums in its insane performance. In general, it happens a lot in this music and I’m sure I’m not the only person who loves this stuff more and more with every listen, discovering something new every time. You’ll probably also be a little surprised how fresh it is. I mean, there’s more power and energy than in music created by much younger musicians. I hear influences of some very well-known ensembles and you’ll do the same. But in my opinion guys play just like it was in the eighties and early nineties in Poland, when, this is my subjective feeling, bands from the so called West were only inspiration, but… That’s why I also hear strong touches of the aforementioned band, where Wolf (Robert), Mefisto (Dariusz) played a long time ago. Also some touches of the one where Dziabąg (Piotr) was a guitarist are quite clear for me (he always liked to play some sick melodies, it seems), but in less grade then in case of Scarecrow. Well, I know there’s only a few people on this planet who know what I’m talking about now. But this is, I think, some kind of motivation to check out both hordes – Scarecrow and Cormag.
So, we can say Dammnatorum is in some way a continuation of these bands and that’s not only about common characteristics of music. One more thing is an image I directly connected with Scarecrow. I know, a lot of you will do it with some another Polish very well-known, not only because of music, which’s nothing special as for me band coming from Gdansk, but what to do. By the way, Dammnatorum’s creativity is very much based in middle tempos. And at the end of this review, I tell you only one more thing: this is a must for you if you call yourself a death metal fan! And since I write these words September 1st, 2024, I do it with whole responsibility: that’s one oof the best albums released last year!
