After hearing a few demo tracks from the band’s 1998 Dark Divinity demo, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of new material by this Australian quartet of brutal dark death metal. Much to my delight, Mark Deathbringer, whom I have known for a few years now and has aided me many times in the past with the website, decided to sign the band to his label; Venomous Records. Back in October, shortly after the recording of the album, Mark sent me a few MP3s of the new material to see if he had made a good decision in signing the band. I really dug the material on the demo, but the tracks on the new CD, including a cover of the godly "Cenotaph" by the legendary Bolt Thrower, completely blew me away and left me eager to hear more. On a daily basis Mark had to put up with my constant questioning as to when the EP would be released so I could hear the other tracks, most conversations would go something like this; "Mark, these Encabulos songs are fucking amazing, when is the CD coming out?" "I already told you a hundred times that the release has been delayed." "Well, c’mon, give me an estimate." "I DON’T FUCKING KNOW! Would you fuck off already?" "Hey! I don’t need to put up with your shit, you fucking Lucky Charms talking mother fucker ‘Oh, I don’t want the children to steal me Lucky Charms, blue clouds, pink rainbows, orange horseshoes’, well FUCK YOU! I don’t need to put up with shit from someone who wears a kilt and plays with his bag. Put the fucking CD out already you fucking poofter." "What? I’m not from Ireland, dumbfuck." "Oh… well fuck you anyway." The music of Encabulos can best be described as Incantation with groove. The opening track, "Damnation Takes Over", by far my favorite track on the album. The song is pure dark death metal with a powerful rhythm that will get your hair thrashing around in no time with the solid pounding beats and choppy guitars. Following it is the energetic "Inside The Inferno", which swims back and forth between rhythm and brutality from note to note. Up next are the two tracks from this mCD I had not heard prior to the album’s release; "Prophetic Cataclysm" and "Abandoning The Flesh". "Prophetic Cataclysm" is similar to the previous tracks, in that there is very heavy groove with variations in speed, however tending to be a very slow and pummeling track, rather than the faster and more energetic tracks. The title track brings the album back up to speed, and chugs along menacingly, with the aggressive sections simply crushing your ear drums. The final track is an extremely energetic cover of "Cenotaph". Usually while listening to Bolt Thrower, I tend to think to myself "There’s no way any band could do a cover of any of their songs that would do the material justice", well, I guess I was wrong, because their cover simply kills. The band adds their own distinct sound to the music, creating a very interesting and aggressive tribute to the death metal legends. The unfortunate thing about this album is that it is only a mCD, and, in my opinion, far too short, clocking in at under 20 minutes, however the material contained within is good and entertaining. I had been looking forward to picking up this mCD for a long time and was planning to buy it when it was released, however, I did get the promo, so I won’t need to buy it, however I would still recommend that any fan of dark death metal or Bolt Thrower, should pick up this release, it’s definitely worth it. Four out of five songs are highly entertaining, however the shortness of the release does leave a lot to be desired and only displays a small portion of the band’s obvious talent. Now I just have to wait impatiently for Encabulos to record a new full length and nag Mark’s kangaroo stuffing ass about it until they either put out a new release, or he pays me off so I’ll leave him alone. Fucking Crocodile Dundee.

Written By: Teufel