Echoing as if birthed from the miles-long depths of North America’s greatest lava tubes Cavurn‘s first demo showcases a freshly fired project with deep appreciation for the heaviest extremes of death/doom art. Likely most inspired by modern takes on death/doom such as Spectral Voice‘s ‘Necrotic Doom’ demo, Cavurn‘s ‘Rehearsal’ is a lurching beast that evokes a litany of death/doom upstarts from the early 90’s like Maimed‘s ‘Demo #1’ from 1991 and Cianide‘s classic pre-‘The Dying Truth’ demos. There is an embodiment of classic underground death/doom metal in their musings that could only come from a greater appreciation of sub-genre obscurities.

Not necessarily a recreation society, Cavurn impress with more than vapid resemblance. Their own ‘take’ or spin on the style appears currently focused on the creation of extreme noise in the form of wailing guitar feedback and wild cavernous howls. For now their most distinct elements combine sludgy death metal riffs and unhinged horror atmospherics; When the vocalist isn’t shrieking from 1,000 meters beneath the earth his tone is an almost perfect match for Anssi Kartela (Rippikoulu) and this helps to invoke that classic demo-era death/doom vibe that I associate with Cavurn‘s sound. Though it is a rehearsal, the tape really just sounds like a professionally recorded EP.

Fans of other Northwest US contemporaries like Mortiferum and Ossuarium who’d lean more towards early Cianide, and less the grime of early Convulse, might be most excited by the thickly stoned groove and reverberating continence of ‘Rehearsal’. I also detect some semblance of later era Runemagick guitar work creeping into the riff-writing but that could just be wishful thinking or coincidence. This sort of thing is right up my alley and the almost shrieking black metal-ish moments that help Cavurn stand out are highly successful without sounding trendy or forced. Would definitely recommend ‘Rehearsal’ to any fan of death/doom metal and I look forward to their upcoming release now that they’ve got label support.

Channels carved by molten death. 3.75/5.0

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