VOËMMR – NEGRAS SESSÕES NO ABISMO SUL LP (Signal Rex)
Even by the outsider standards of Portugal’s notorious Aldebaran Circle, Voëmmr is something of an outlier, somehow more otherworldly and surreal than their already unconventional compatriots, although at the same time not exactly dwelling a million miles south of any of them, particularly the demonic Degredo perhaps, although I digress a little.
Having already unleashed two feverish full-lengths, Voëmmr’s latest shrouded strike is ‘Negras sessões no abismo sul’ – a compendium of their demos from 2018 and 2020 – namely ‘Sombr Moebrd’ and ‘Tordaebr Odr Daebr’ respectively, totalling around 48 minutes of black sessions from the southern abyss, maybe Lusatania or perhaps hell itself. Let’s say Lusatanica…
The curses of Voëmmr are haunting and disturbing; spectral and ghastly emanations that sound like the bastard offspring of an orgy involving Mons Veneris, Defuntos, Abruptum, Sektarism, a ghost, and a legion of dead and demented rabble rousers. If corpses rose from their graves, picked up instruments (instead of tormenting their enemies from times gone by) and decided to make some music, it might sound as ghoulish and barbaric as this, But probably not quite.
Notwithstanding drums that at times sound uncannily like ghost’s chains, the aspect of ‘Negras sessões no abismo sul’ that stands out most in the demented racket is the utterly unhinged and ridiculous vocals – a cacophonous chorus of screams and shrieks and bellows and vomits and hollers and pained howls, like a phantom being tortured relentlessly in a purgatorial realm where only suffering is real. Indeed, Voëmmr very effectively channels the sound of suffering here.
Some might suffer trying to listen to this because it’s clearly not for everyone. Put it this way, the law of diminishing returns can set in pretty fast with this sort of material because it is so outlandish, but for now I’m very fond of Voëmmr and would recommend checking out ‘Negras sessões no abismo sul’ on Bandcamp before potentially pulling the trigger on the very well presented vinyl edition.
Evilometer: 555/666