Album Review: Funeral Vomit - Upheaval Of Necromancy
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Hailing from Barranquilla, Colombia, Funeral Vomit is set to release a second collection of unholy death metal blasphemies in the guise of the sophomore album, Upheaval of Necromancy, on the 19th December, just in time for Christmas. Formed in 2020, at the height of the global pandemic, Funeral Vomit issued a demo and a series of splits with the likes of Mvltifisson and Heretic Ritual, before a self-titled EP and, finally, their 2023 debut full-length, Monumental Putrescence - also on the 19th December.
The trio who recorded the debut have expanded to a quartet with the introduction of second guitarist, Cadaveric Messiah, ex-Opositor, ex-Serpent of Eden’s Y. Crucifixor to give this new record a deeper, fuller sound.
Upheaval of Necromancy opens with the foreboding and forbidding introduction, The Disentombment, establishing an otherworldly chill immediately and creating an unsettling atmosphere from the outset. The title track follows swifty on, mid-paced brutal death metal, utilising the raw, classic sound of the first wave without feeling the need to break the speed limit, rather to let the blasphemous grunts and fetid putridity do the heavy lifting.
The filth continues on the controlled Mortician chaos of the cloying Sulphuric Regurgitation, which opens with a soundbite from David Cronenberg’s The Fly; built around a thick bass and rancid vocal, this is where Upheaval…’s grim majesty starts to properly reveal itself. Prominent percussion and a mid-paced breakdown give way to catchy hooks, meaning even the dankest of compositions have listenability. Winds of Exhumation arrives with an instant barrage of noise, like a tsunami wave making landfall, it’s devastating use of twisting guitars and harsh, double-bass kick drums, all managed with some restraint, give this an even more disgusting feel.
Taking cues from Autopsy, Funeral Vomit opt to utilise the slow and brooding to build atmosphere, with Hematophagia’s cold, icy riffs taking on a hypnotically repetitive cycling, breaking into a classic Floridan lunge and whipping guitars, it’s the longest and most expansive track on the record. Acting as an extended coda, the mid-record interlude, Mortuary Ecstasy, offers some respite following the intensity of Hematophagia’s far-reaching ambition, though carries with it its own eerie and dank, almost ritualistic, rhythms.
As Upheaval of Necromancy moves into its final movements, Cryptic Miasma’s brooding doom seems to suck everything in like passing the event horizon of a black hole, and the staccato riffing will infect your mind and live in your brain for days. Probably as sick as any death metal you’ll have heard in 2025, there’s still time for an unsettling solo as the track reaches its conclusion. Final track proper on the record is the threatening Rancid Insorcism which brims with bludgeoning bass, punishing percussion and flailing guitars. There’s a black metal atmosphere in the charge and, oddly, it's not without a modicum of melody.
Before the icy doom-feel of those, is the short, sharp, shock of the blasting brutality that is Altars of Doom, with its unrelenting intensity and Mortician fury and excoriating guitars.
The record comes full circle with the cosmically atmospheric outro, Effluvia of the Mass Grave, bringing this Lovecraftian journey to a conclusion, though not a resolution, as the experience of taking this trip with Funeral Vomit is likely to haunt your dreams for some time.
Although only a touch over half-an-hour, Upheaval of Necromancy is a satisfying listen, from a band who seem to understand extremity and intensity doesn’t necessarily start and end with the BPM count. It’s death metal done in a more old-school way and is all the better for it.
