Date: December 5th, 2023

Label: Independent

Bolivia is one of two and at the same time the largest landlocked country in both Americas. That’s also one of very few countries with two capitals. Well, the constitutional one is Sucre, but all administration is in La Paz. The largest city of the country is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, better known as just Santa Cruz, with two and a half millions of people. And as we know very well, more people live somewhere with the biggest number of Metalheads and bands. That’s why we’ll stay there for a while. Well, this is still a review, so I’ll not write here about the scene itself in the city or even municipality. If someone of you is interested in this topic then you should check it out on her/his own. And believe me, there’s much to dig and you’ll be positively surprised. But here we go with only one of the hordes. Nekromanteion was born in 2011 and there’s no full-length in their discography. Well, to be honest, this is quite modest and is about only one demo, two splits and EP in old, and as for me the only correct, meaning EP.

“The Sinister Flame” is the second demo in the career of our Bolivian friends. This stuff is even shorter than the one then reviewed not too long ago “Jesus Lies” and takes twelve minutes and forty eight seconds. We have here two songs of music we can, and actually should, call black/death metal. As you can see tracks are quite long, but still not too long. They’re also quite developed, but at the same time, of course, not too developed. And that’s somehow the same as in cases of Victhorian or even Infernal Curse (by the way, guitarist and vocalist was once a member of this second ensemble). I of course don’t say music of Bolivians is some secondary cliche of Argentinians. Well, of course they play more or less the same music, so that’s natural there’s many similarities. But at the same time there are some differences as well. And these differences are quite huge in my opinion – at least as huge as you can’t mix these two bands; I mean you’ll directly know if you’re listening to Infernal Curse or Nekromanteion. In the case of our Bolivian friends these black influences are more Greek ones, I guess. Besides, riffs are more death or even, from time to time, even if you can’t and shouldn’t expect any advanced tricks, solos and stuff like that. Well, if you ever played guitar or at least have some knowledge about it you appreciate technique. But Asag concentrates on what’s the most important in such creativity. The same can be said about drumming. This is variable and passages or changes of tempo aren’t rare, especially when we’ll think about the fact we have only two songs. Anyways, music is mostly in the middle tempo, but of course guys know very well how to play faster. Vocal is also what you should expect from an ensemble creating this kind of metal. That’s something you can associate with old school a little scream Black growling, but it’d sound also very accurate in death metal.

By the way, even if I know it probably sounds or at least beginning to sound a little boring, I say it once again. This stuff has only one bad side – this is too short. But something I really like, well, actually I love this, is that it’s released just like a demo was released in my younger years. Tape format is the best I can imagine! Well,this is surely a result of the fact that I have huge feelings for times when I edited my own zine, but… However, I found it on the channel of Iron BoneHead Production, so there’s surely more tapes available then I found information about. I’m so sure of that because in fact this limited to 300 copies was released independently by the band itself. Anyhow, you shouldn’t think about the thing too long and just order this stuff and get to know Bolivian hell’s as quickly as possible! And I guarantee you’ll be as happy as me if you discovered one more great band!