Review by Fran on January 20, 2024.

Culto Negro’s style can be labeled as black/thrash. It's totally old school, there are some real fast tupa-tupa parts but almost never proper blast beats and the songs include a fair share of mid-paced traditional speed metal double bass drum beats. Riffing is not particularly original but it’s super effective, like a Destruction/Celtic Frost hybrid with accelerated passages like those found on early Mayhem. The attitude of the band fits the musical concept and the image perfectly, this is currently one of the best Costa Rican extreme metal acts and has better exposition than most of the bands around; even outside the country, double score for that.

Lyrical concept deals with occultism and drug abuse; and were written in a very mature manner, capturing the actual zeitgeist with class. Drumming isn't particularly technical but the recording and execution were done properly despite the old school sound of the band. It sounds acoustic but not underproduced. The same goes for the strings; the bass tone is kind of flat and but fills its role blending the drums with the guitars perfectly, playing along with the riffs. Guitars are also super raw equalized with lots of treble and high-mids but it's brightness complements the dull bass perfectly, achieving the “abismal” effect the album is named after. The vocals are high pitched, sung in spanish so vocalization will probably sound harsh to english speakers. Even though they are powerful and frontman has a lot of presence, I dislike the fact that he is out of time in some verses; it takes musicality from the songs but adds energy and attitude. At the end it's just an artistic choice and matter of taste, it doesn't ruin the album.

Composition wise there is a fair amount of mid-paced sections but the drummer uses a double bass pedal so he changes between the d-beat and the double bass traditional speed metal beat in no time, keeping the pace with the snare. The cymbal work is also better than average but never falling into wankery, just thrash with balls of steel. Riffs consist basically in fast tremolo black metal palm-muted shredding and traditional thrash metal riffs combining fast palm mute picking and power chords. Some D-beat parts build over simple chord progressions, kind of punk. The attitude of the band fits the musical concept very well.

Rating: 8 out of 10