Review by Fran on January 10, 2022.

SARS-CoV-2​ pandemic forced bands to exhibit their performances through digital platforms, live or prerecorded. Blasfemia Fest was the Costa Rican attempt to do so. I “attended” the premier of the show and was delighted with the visual quality of the material, edited and recorded by Hexagon Productions. The audio had some issues, especially in the set of the first band on the rooster -“Multiverse Agony”- but all in all I thought it was a good show. This single is an extract from Requiem Of Malediction’s performance.

I would define ROM’s brand of black metal as a mixture between Marduk’s "Panzer Division" and Dark Funeral’s "Diabolis Interium". Lots of blast beats, a menacing sense of melody and the use of 7 string guitars broadens their range. This song in particular features tetric arpeggios and slower mysterious interludes that add a lot of dynamic to the band’s sound in general, as they contrast with the traditional upbeat blast mayhem. It’s my favorite song from them to this date. The only technical issue with the track is the fact that it wasn’t mixed properly and it hurt the guitars, which could have been bigger if a processor or an interface with a good preamp were used.

The band’s mastermind and main songwriter and lyricist is Jiangshi, the bassist. That being said, you can expect a bass oriented mix as on any Iron Maiden live album for example. I don’t have any problem with that, as a bassist myself and considering Jiangshi’s outstanding ability. Even if this isn’t the final production of their new material (post-The First Adversarial Manifesto, their first EP) this track shows a pleasing improvement in terms of composition; more mature, balanced and multidimensional in general. I’m eager to hear what they are going to release next, to be honest.

Rating: 7 out of 10