Review by Greg on July 10, 2023.

Soured Ground was a crust-infused thrash band from NY which only saw their debut and lone full-length Immatura Sepulturam released posthumously in 2017. Its title refers, in a slightly awkward Latin, to the untimely end of the band, which was very short-lived. Nevertheless, since they still managed to put out something for the posterity, which isn't something every band following this trajectory can claim, why not check it out?

Surprisingly enough, there's more to the album than the whirlwind of poorly produced hateful tracks you might be expecting right now. Immatura Sepulturam doesn't lack hasty outbursts of punky vitriolic energy with ferocious vocals, of course, but Soured Ground also display a certain knack for building up different scenarios in such short songs. The easy example is opener 'Up From The Depths', which for the genre's standards might even be considered a suite from the height of its 5 minutes, which picks up more and more pace until climaxing in a slower, but no less heavy section. I'm even more shocked by some of the slightly shorter numbers, like the disturbing necrophilia and murder story narrated in 'Unholy Bitchual (The Post-Mortem Odyssey)' (and one can overlook the mercifully brief breakdown in the middle), or the amazing 'Cannibal Slave' which keeps you on the edge of your seat for all its duration. Plus, 'A rose, by any other name / Is just as useless perched atop your grave' might be one of the most brilliant lines ever conceived in a metal album. 'Storming The Gates' is also notable for being really a speed/thrash song disguised in such a coarse environment, given its more elaborated intro and almost melodic (which is, like, the first instance of the word) licks.

Summing up, Soured Ground's Immatura Sepulturam is the unfortunate testament of a band which was probably destined to be amongst the good hard workers of the scene. Probably nothing that hasn't already been done by Black Breath, Amebix, or Revenge, but you can kill your next 25 minutes with way worse occupations.

Rating: 7 out of 10