Description
Formed in 2109 in Talagante, Chile’s SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH are cultists of an old-school style: death-doom metal in the old spirit, creating the darkest and most desolate atmospheres without losing a strong sense of authenticity and identity. The band’s first public recording, The Plague of the Aeons, was first digitally released in early 2020, and a tape version was released later that year. Perking up the ears of PERSONAL RECORDS, a deal was made with the label, and the EP was released internationally on CD in March 2021. Thereafter, the name SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH began to spread slowly and ominously, like their Lovecraftian moniker portends…
At long last, the band make their full-length debut with However It Still Moves. Even with lineup changes that saw two founding members depart, SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH sound heavier and more atmospheric than ever. The genesis of However It Still Moves was a protracted one due to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, but with the opportunity for each song on the album to pass through a process of experimentation, the band began to explore new textures of their already suffocating sound, opening up more space and dynamics due to the concerted inclusion of keyboards and synthesizers. Thus, the now-sextet have become more atmospheric and yet denser simultaneously; the rumbling ‘n’ rolling discord of their characteristic sound has slowly unfolded into one equally melancholic and menacing, utterly crushing and crushed. “Dark as fuck” is one way of describing However It Still Moves, but “bittersweetly beautiful” is another, depending on what minute of the hour-long album you land on – many movements and many moods, but all dripping into (and reverberating back up from) a bottomless well of despair. Of course, SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH remain resolutely DOOM-DEATH, but there’s a sometimes-shimmering quality to this record – and especially, well-timed inclusion of chorused guitars – that favorably compares to the legendary Skepticism at their most breathtaking.
It’s rare to find pure & proud doom-death attempting to take the proverbial “step forward” and much less exceed while doing so, but SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH have done exactly that with However It Still Moves. And this is but their debut album…no light in sight.
