The Costa Rica Death Metal movement begun to be notorious in the underground back in the ’90s with a number of classic bands like PSY-WAR, MANTRA or PSEUDOSTRATIFFIED EPITHELIUM among others, each one representing different views of the genre. For the last two decades it has been adding a very interesting set of Death Metal acts to the local and international scenes. In 2024 and making part of the Death / Doom realm, we get to see the four songs demo “Lutum” by the band PERISHING, from San José. With members of BLOOSOAKED NECROVOID, ASTRIFEROUS and other bands, PERISHING is picking up the typical elements of heaviness and darkness of the Death / Doom spectrum and lifting them up to their own expresion. It’s a band clearly interested in finding its way in the vast territory of Death / Doom Metal. And they do very well in my opinion as they are able to generate their sound and style, a complicated task nowadays. Their lyrics are encapsulated in a narrative of death, traveling from the first to the fourth song of the demo all across this topic. The first song ‘Tenebrous Resurrection’ is one with more doomy transitions and perhaps the one I liked the most. It relates how the extinction of humans is imminent as darkness approaches at dawn. Then with ‘Existencial Rift’ they continue describing the six paths that carry the souls to the necrotic cave of nonenxistence. And I would like to underline the third song ‘Lutum’, as it deals with the event of someone meeting their own death, resulting in a terrifying and “natural” scene if you meant to talk about death in a Death Metal band, but at the same time making complete sense and covering the whole idea of the demo, what this demo is all about: Horror, despair, death, nothing else! The fourth and last song ‘Nefarius Acquiescence’ closes the cycle and imprisions the mortal forms of humans in darkness for three eternities. And you can tell that from the artwork, you’ll smell the icy embrace of death throughout the 23 minutes that you’ll need to listen to the demo. You’ll perish in mist and dusk till Doomsday! I can’t recommend this demo enough! www.instagram.com/perishing_doom, www.morbidchapelrecords.com