ANTHEOLOGY are from Colombia and debuted with the EP "Rusty by Faith" in 2019, albeit with a slightly different lineup than their current one. With this release, "Monuments of Misanthropy," a three-quarter-hour debut full-length dominated by guttural, shrill, two-voice death metal, giving the final result a certain black edge in some of the album's various compositions.
It's also true that tracks like "Dead March" feature hints of brutal death metal, most noticeable in the furious "Coins of Blood," with certain technical touches, and with more mid-tempo sections in "Doctrine of Misery." It's clear that ANTHEOLOGY have greatly expanded their compositional spectrum to offer a diverse range of sounds, and where their influences are certainly very varied.
More black touches, especially due to the combination of voices, can also be heard in the heartbreaking "Seeds of Deceseased," as the only thing this group fully focuses on is delivering the most intense sound possible, offering some solos that don't forget melody, speed, and precision, including some peculiar sounds at the beginning and in some chords in the middle of "Cradle of Immortals" that can bring back echoes of NILE. “Monuments of Misanthropy” itself doesn't reject the use of keyboards—very sparingly, of course—but they're there, demonstrating the compositional variety included in a work that leaves three of the most intense and aggressive songs of the eleven included for last, finishing with a version, very much in its own right, of “Swarm of Rats,” which BELPHEGOR recorded in 2002.
The artwork for “Monuments of Misanthropy,” an album released by the Spanish labels Base Record Production and Necromance Records, was created by Colombian artist Felipe Mora, whose name may sound familiar from his work with bands such as AKHERON, HELLBLOOD, ENEMY, RESTOS HUMANOS, TUMULARIO, and WAR TESTAMENT, not to mention his collection of oil paintings based on METALLICA's “Ride the Lightning.”
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=rU14-lbGWg0
