Venezuela's Cthonica has put immeasurable work into their debut album, Typhomanteia: Sacred Triarchy of Spiritual Putrefaction. The Caracas entity plays a demented and hybridized blend of death-doom and black metal. Still, what is most intriguing about their first work is the story they have crafted behind it and how their music augments it. Cthonica's vision statement—“to submit to the darkness of unreasoning and to be servants of our unconscious, metaphorically and symbolically speaking and 'to return to earth', and thus, now in the 'home' of the chthonic gods“—is the cornerstone for their introduction.
In Typhomanteia, the Venezuelans begin their task of "Claiming (the) Throne (of) Noxious Illuminative Catharsis“—as the band describes. The three-act album is a step-by-step account of spiritual decay and the first act, "The Chalice" is streaming now.
"Act I: The Chalice, as the band describes, is "Will: To drink from the cup of Sin." The 11-plus minute offering channels mystic blur of Portal and the cavernous feel of Incantation or diSEMBOWELMENT. As the track nears its midway point, Cthonica builds in some darker ambient and noisy textures—a brief reprieve—before cueing up another intense arrangement.
Listen to "Act I: The Chalice" now. Also, pick up the LP of Typhomanteia: Sacred Triarchy of Spiritual Putrefaction from Sentient Ruin and the tape version from Caligari Records. Clavis Secretorvm has copies of the LP and CD for Europe.
