Artist: Tenebro
Country: Italy
Label: Xtreem Music
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2023
Besides two EP’s this second full-length album is the third release of this Italian tour-de-force of apocalyptic Death Metal, or, as they call it themselves, “Italian Horror Glorifying Death Metal”. The fact that the duo can keep this steep working pace has not only to do with their passion for the Death Metal genre, but for sure also because of the fairly simple character of their music. On all previously released recordings, a good handful of EP’s and their debut album, Tenebro have proved to be a force to be reckoned with but also to be pretty much a one-trick pony. This newest album is not going to change anything to that legacy.
And, fairness dictates, I don’t think that these two guys actually were aiming for anything else. The one-dimensional and rather flat-footed sort of Grindcore-infused Death Metal still verges to the likes of old Mortician or a slower version of Impetigo. Within the almost 44 minutes of ‘Ultime Grida Dalla Giungla’ there is a minimum of diversity which makes the album not the easiest album to be fully focussed on, yet when it comes to mainly-down tempo Death Metal they certainly know their game: slow riffs, swinging drums and utterly guttural vocals.
Like on their previously released album, the downside of this sort of music is the aforementioned lack of versatility. The extremely meaty, rolling riffs and very catchy headbangable rhythms do not completely make up for the lack of diversity, but allows the band to have really found their niche in the saturated current day Death Metal scene. Still, for me personally this sort of music works way better on the EP format, chewing on two tracks of the most stinking and festering sort of Death Metal keeps the music much more lethal.
