Having just formed last year, Summon is a relative newcomer to the thriving Portuguese metal scene, but you’d never guess that from listening to their seething, claustrophobic debut EP Aesthetics of Demise. Spiking their blackened attack with a liberal dose of caustic death/doom, their approach might not be as frenetic as bands like Black Cilice, Ordem Satânica, or Cripta Oculta, but that doesn’t mean their music is any less filthy. In fact, in some ways they sound like a decidedly more lo-fi version of The Ominous Circle, with the emphasis seeming to be a bit more on atmosphere than on riffs.
Honestly, this is one of those rare records where I actually wish the production had been a bit cleaner, because I don’t think the songs here are necessarily being well served by being buried under such a heavy layer of scuzz. The vocals in particular often sound like they were recorded in a wind tunnel and tend to drown out pretty much everything else. It’s kind of a shame, because there are definitely moments where it seems like there are interesting things going on musically, if only they could be heard. For example, there’s a slower section in opening track “Blood Obscure Temple” that brings to mind a blackened Gorguts, but the guitars sound so distant in the mix—more so even than the reverb-drenched ‘cavernous’ death metal—that they tend to wash over the listener when they could have been far more engaging. The same can be said for the crawling “Consummation,” which is robbed of much of its tension by the mix. In fact, the only track that really does benefit from the no-fi mix is closer “Cult of Deep Realms,” a dark ambient track that ends the record on a decidedly creepy note.
On the whole, I do like Aesthetics of Demise quite a bit, but I’m somewhat frustrated by it as well because by all rights it should be a much better record than it actually is. I guess the production does give the EP a more ritualistic feel, but it also really straddles the line between being kvlt and being background noise. It’s a shame, because these songs deserved better, and I’d be willing to wager that Summon is a force to be reckoned with live.
Aesthetics of Demise is now available on cassette via Iron Bonehead.
