Spanish death/doom band Cerebral Curse has only been around for two years or so, but they already made a strong impression with their 2025 demo. Even at this early stage the group had a mastery between the push and pull of atmospheric, murky doom sections and pummeling death metal ones and their debut full-length Abominant Incarnations of Sepulchral Depths takes things up another notch. Offering three lengthy tracks that move seamlessly between more aggressive riffing and slow, atmospheric sections that feel like they’re dragging the listener into a dark, murky cavern, the writing keeps you engaged from beginning to end and showcases what makes this type of death/doom so appealing.
You’re met with a short sample and slower instrumentation upon pressing play, and the first minute or so of the title track builds methodically from a lumbering caveman type groove into bursts of faster blasting, but then things slow way down and let the darker, murkier atmosphere really build. What immediately drew me to Cerebral Curse’s take on this type of murkier and dense death/doom was how well they manage the transitions between the more methodical and glacial paced doom sections and the aggressive death metal bursts. When they pick up the tempo and emphasize blasting and grooves, the back and forth reminds me of something like Coffins as there is a similar weight and intensity to the instrumentation, but the slower passages let creepier leads and melodies seep in and this has a bit more of a funeral doom influence present. The shifts between tempos may be the same between the three tracks, but each one varies up these elements in different ways that keeps things engaging from beginning to end. “Mangled Cranial Liquefaction” spends much of its run moving between slow, grimy sections where you can feel every cymbal hit and some more primal grooves, but towards the mid-point it whips things up into a D-beat section that has a bit more of an Autopsy/Abscess vibe for that short burst of time. “Degradation Towards Corporeal Dissolution” sprawls things out past the seventeen-minute mark and really lets the murkiness and darker melodies build to peak levels, and the second half of this track is where things start to feel a bit closer to funeral doom in terms of chilling atmosphere and methodical pacing. The production also works to the album’s advantage, as while it’s not quite as cavernous or dense as some of the other death/doom out there the slight edge in clarity lets the creepier melodies seep through without losing the overall impact.
Lead guitarist Ernesto Plazas also handles all the vocal work for Cerebral Curse, and he has the type of deep and distorted growl that makes the material sound even more ominous and tense. This especially stands out on the slow parts on “Mangled Cranial Liquefaction”, where each word seems to stretch outwards and distort in ways that makes it sound like a monstrous entity is going to come from the darkness and take you away. While this type of pitch is what you’d expect from death/doom of this type, there’s something about how inhuman Plazas sounds on a lot of these passages that helps set Cerebral Curse over the top, and he even shifts towards some higher screams at key points that really keep the tension at a high level. You’ll also notice a good deal of echo and other elements that help the vocals keep this otherworldly presence throughout the material, and this fits the grimy tone perfectly.
Cerebral Curse may not be drastically changing any of the elements you’d expect from death/doom or even funeral doom, but their full length gets down to the core essence of what makes this style appealing. The slow, moodier build-ups are effective at maintaining tension without feeling they drag on for too long, and the caveman grooves and full-on blasting sessions showcase the sharpness of the band’s attack in ways that don’t feel predictable across the three tracks. Where a lot of death/doom drags on or doesn’t let its atmosphere reach that dread inducing level, these guys have harnessed that potential really early on and it’ll be interesting to see how they find ways to top this effort. Abominant Incarnations of Sepulchral Depths is available from Rotted Life Records and Night Terrrors Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg