A cup of coffee is good at every coffeeshop: hot water brewed over ground coffee. It’s simple, tasty, and effective. The best cafes have perfected their brew, grind setting, and roast to get the perfect cup. It’s not a specialized latte or secret menu item, but a good cup of coffee will always start your morning right. Triagone, a new brutal technical death metal outfit from Brussels, offer death metal like a hot cup of java. Sem Papyrvs does not break new ground in extreme metal, but this six-song EP is a great debut from a promising new artist.
‘Novvs Ordo Seclorvm’ starts at the zero-second mark with all engines running at five thousand RPM. While it feels ragged at points, it has two ripping guitar solos. It introduces the exciting dual-vocalist aspect of Triagone that features Lorena Moraes and Lou-Indigo Caspar, described as “female beast vs. male beast.”
By the second track, Triagone have trimmed their ragged ends. Their drummer takes the spotlight early on in ‘Abyssvs Abyssvm Inovcat,’ because from here on out Lorenzo Vissol rarely lets up from their tight blast beats for the rest of the EP. The vocalists pause their duel to team up against the guitar, but the guitar’s melodic solo gives them a run for their money. Not yet beaten, Moraes and Caspar combine forces with rhythm guitarist Lucas Lembert’s opening chugs on ‘Ad Mortem Sem Papyrvs.’ This song houses the EP’s weakest point with a jarring spoken-word break. While Triagone’s lyrics typically are a unique mix of ancient Greek and Latin and modern Latin and Germanic languages, during the breakdown in this track, modern English (not the band) makes an appearance in an awkwardly clipped, spoken-word break about COVID-19, complete with sirens. The bass and drum solo, courtesy of Leonard Invanciu and Vissol though, buoy the breakdown enough to keep it from dragging.
Denizens of death metal who struggle to understand the lyrics without a visual aid rejoice: ‘Nvlla Regvla Sine Exceptione’ showcases Moraes’ and Caspar’s ability to enunciate their growls. Not content with that, though, this track features some deeply sinister whispering, a banging solo, and a thoughtful outro into a delightful instrumental interim, ‘De Beata Vita’ – “the blessed/happy life.” This break is certainly a happy break from the previous four ferocious tracks and gives the listener just enough of break for the final track.
‘Imperivm in Imperio’ starts like the EP does: no-holds-barred, crushing metal. The happy life is cut short by the title: “government in power.” It is a most appropriate ending for this outfit’s brutal technical death metal. Caspar slips in one more monster solo before the song descends into chaos and ends in abrupt dissonance. The happy life is smothered; death metal reigns forever.