UMUR "From Which Nightmares Crawl" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Utah based death metal act Sacrilegion. The album was released through Chaos Records in December 2022. Sacrilegion formed in 2018 as a one-man project with Connor G. Carlson handling guitars, drums, and vocals on the December 2018 "The Pest Dialect" demo, but since then Sacrilegion have become a band with four permanent members.

Sacrilegion fully embrace an old school death metal sound, featuring thick, brutal, and meaty guitar riffs, morbid leads, powerful organic drumming, and abysmal growling vocals, which occasionally enters more snarling/screaming territories for effect. There´s the occasional blackened edge to the proceedings, but it´s only a minor element of the band´s sound.

What you notice straight away when listening to "From Which Nightmares Crawl" is the high level musicianship. This is not per see technical death metal, but it´s still played in a way, which requires someone who can pull it off, and Sacrilegion certainly can do that.

The material is well written, but maybe lacks a bit in the memorability department. They try really hard and also succeed in incorporating melodic guitars riffs and leads, which sounds right out of the early- to mid-90s school of Dissection and Necrophobic, and they combine that with their more brutal and heavy death metal sound and the outcome is pretty great. But again I´m not able to remember much from the album, after it´s done playing, and that´s a minor issue.

When that is said "From Which Nightmares Crawl" is still a high quality death metal release, and definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre. Just don´t expect to hear anything you haven´t heard before. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Pest Dialect" is a demo recording by US, Utah based death metal act Sacrilegion. The demo was independently released in December 2018. At this point Sacrilegion was a one-man project with Connor G. Carlson handling guitars, drums, and vocals assisted by guest/session musician Wolf Nunley on bass.

Stylistically the four tracks on the 16:41 minutes long demo are relatively brutal old school death metal. It´s well performed and the growling vocals are loud in the mix, convincing, and brutal. There´s a snarling aggressive tone to them now and again, and it´s great for the variation. Tempos are varied within tracks and the tracks also feature a couple of different riff styles.

While the songs are effective and well composed, they could have been a little more memorable and you shouldn´t expect to hear much here you haven´t heard before. Sacrilegion go for an all out old school death metal approach and they succeed well in doing that.

The sound production is sharp, brutal, and meaty, which suits the material well, so "The Pest Dialect" does come off as a professional product. There´s only a few times during the playing time where you´re reminded that this is a demo recording. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.