REVIEW DROWNED "PROCUL HIS"

Berlin-based Drowned, who have been up to mischief in the underground since 1992 but didn´t release their debut album "Idola Specus" until 2014 after a few great demos and a 7" single, have now released their second album "Procul His".  Like its predecessor, this happens via Sepulchral Voice Records. This label, known for sinister, extreme, authentic and primal underground metal, seems to fit perfect for the band. Drowned don't do anything special per se, but this they do in a perfect manner: they play ancient death metal that sometimes playfully changes tempo or repeats melodies longer than the average metal song. The slow parts also create a sometimes almost meditative depth. I would mention band names like Grave Miasma, Excoriate, Necros Christos, Dead Congregation, Degial, Venenum, Incantation or Obliteration as reference points to better imagine the sound image, at least in terms of mood, these comparisons fit well. Drowned also share the preference for rather atypical death metal cover artworks with the latter. The cover of "Procul his", like that of "Idola Specus", offers room for many interpretations and underlines the band's claim, but it never loses itself in any pseudo-allures, a flaw that unfortunately clings to many metal bands that only leave the beaten track in some areas. Drowned, on the other hand, do everything right with this release. I read a review of the album that criticized the lack of brutality, a point I totally disagree with: of course Drowned are not a band that wants to win any kind of competition in terms of heaviness or any extreme characteristics. What I like so much about this record is that it offers traditional, unpolished death metal in a subtle, unobtrusive way, with great, varied structures that make you perceive the sound differently even after the umpteenth listen - despite this atmospheric density  "Procul His" still offers a traditional old-school sound.