PSICORRAGIA, Ruina Y Muerte…El Genesis  (2011, Gate of Horror Productions)

The skull:
Clearly one of those skulls unearthed in an archeological dig, which is one of the most fertile sources for skull covers, but unless you do the digging yourself, don’t you think you should at least give credit to the digger? We’d sure love to see a band wholly dedicate themselves to the skull by going out and unearthing the bony noggin with their own bare hands. That would be impressive. This plundering of National Geographic isn’t fooling anyone.

The music:
Psycho-Rage-ia, huh? The name makes you think pizza-n-beer thrash metal, but no, these Peruvians play death/doom seemingly inspired by early Anathema and Clouds-era Tiamat. It’s got violin, electric piano and mandolin, so it clearly goes one instrument too far into the frilly lace ‘n’ growl world that divides great doom/death from the cheesy stuff. This release collects their 1998 demo and 2001 debut album, and if you can get past the horribly played, out of-tune violin that opens up the demo and into the material on the album, you’ll find they improved considerably in those three years. They made a wise decision opening up the collection with the album, because Otono has got to be one of the most feebly-performed demos I’ve ever heard. They could skate by if they were a Sodom-esque sorta band, but when you’re going for ornate gothic/doom/death, you better at least be semi-competent. Purple velvet and red wine doom/death is generally not for me, so if you liked the first Celestial Seaosn album or that one by Enchantment, go for this! The rest of you, stick with early Anathama and early My Dying Bride, because that stuff still has never been bested.
— Friar Wagner