#ocultum

Ocultum - Buena Muerte (Heavy Psych Sounds, 2025)

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Cover Artwork & Design Layout by Paweł "Miodek" Mioduchowski

Continuing in the legacy of Sleep, BelzebonG, Dopethrone, Weedeater, and Bongripper, comes OCULTUM -- not a new band, by any means. The Santiago three-piece outfit has been jamming dark, crunchy doom-laden vibes since 2009, with two albums already notched on the belt and a third on the way -- released by no less a label than Heavy Psych Sounds. 'Buena Muerte' (2024) features the morbid, possessed, grave-stomping rhythm section of Ricardo Robles on drums and Pablo Cataldo on bass, the latter joining Sebastián Bruna (guitar & vocals) as two of the longest running members of the group. Robles joined Ocultum in 2018, but that's still six years, so this team has had a chance to really solidify. Judging from their latest 12-minute single, the new album is going to be formidable.

"Last Weed on Earth" starts out slow, like a slumberer awaking to find he's got one joint left to his name, then the panic sets in and things get a bit, well, vicious. Let's let the band explain:

"Last Weed on Earth" is a song that evokes the concept of 70s songs where all the riffs and settings tell a story which lands in a fictional but no less possible place especially with the threat of war and nuclear apocalypse constantly looming over humanity: And when there's only one marijuana plant left on the planet? Who will be there to smoke it? Humans have sealed their fate but on the borders of space and sea another truth hides. "Last Weed on Earth" is our heavy journey loaded with acid blues intense riffs that won't let you think about a tomorrow for this failed humanity."

From the beginning, the riffage builds patiently and locks in with single-minded focus, buttressed by a deadly, determined beat. The song ends on a zoned-in headbanging pulse, emanating an irradiated low-end that will tickle the eardrums of any fuzz lover.

Incidentally, the band contributed to our massive survey of Chilean heavy music on Doomed & Stoned in Chile during the pandemic and it's great to see them going strong into the new year, when you can expect to find these five new abysmally awesome tracks. Releasing February 28th on vinyl, CD, and digital via Heavy Psych Sounds (pre-order here). Recorded at Plex Studios in Santiago, mastered by Esben Willems of Monolord at Studio Berserk in Sweden.

Give Ear...

SOME BUZZ

OCULTUM started when they decided to enter the studio to record their debut album titled 'Ceremonia Oculta Primitiva' (2015), this material was reworked and, after many hours, it was finally released in a self-produced deluxe edition of Digipack CD Pro 3 panels (500 copies sold out) and on Pro Tape by Manifectation Records of Antofagasta (100 copies sold out).

After some changes the group decided to continue as a trio and in 2019, OCULTUM released their second album 'RESIDUE,' 4 extremely heavy songs/trips that reach 50 minutes crushing silence, with a psychedelic and valve production, this album takes you to their own characteristic sound, a hard vision of how Doom, Stoner and Sludge should sound at the end of the planet. It has been released on Tape and Vinyl on Interstellar Smoke Records (Poland), on Pro Tape by Manifectation Records from Antofagasta (100 copies sold out) and on CD on Black Bow Records (England) being signed directly by the label owner, John Davis, vocalist of the brutal doom band, Conan. In his words: "Honestly, if you think that Doom is dying and is becoming too modern and dependent on generic reference points, then you should check it out because Ocultum will fucking KILL you."

The band says: "We are currently releasing with force and conviction our third album, 'Buena Muerte,' a concatenated anthem that explores death as a central theme, highlighting its benevolence towards a human being who cries out in all ways for its inevitable extinction. 'Buena Muerte' is, in turn, an experiment in resurgent creativity where a vibe of the 70s, metal and chaos converge, on the dilapidating base of the heavy and crushing doom stoner that OCULTUM sacredly cultivates."

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