NOGOTHULA – Telluric Sepsis LP

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, NOGOTHULA formed in 2021 originally as a trio, including vocalist / guitarist Colton Deem of the mighty VALDRIN and vocalist / bassist Eric Payne of regional heroes Verment. Alex Hooper rounded out the band on drums, and together they released the Gore Vortex Ascension demo a year later. The title itself gave more than a small indication of the sci-leanings the band would soon explore across their surging & slamming style of death metal. Guitarist Nick Moeller would later join, and as a quartet, NOGOTHULA would record their debut album, Telluric Sepsis.

Released digitally in April 2024, Telluric Sepsis now sees a physical release courtesy of BLOOD HARVEST. And for good reason: sharper, strangely concise, and yet also more mind-bending, Telluric Sepsis is prime progressive-leaning death metal that never loses sight of the original essence of DEATH METAL. References are many – early 2000s Decapitated, Pierced From Within-era Suffocation, pre-Obscura Gorguts, late ’90s Cryptopsy – but NOGOTHULA possess an elusive nous that minces and mangles those sturdy signposts in a manner that’s familiar and foreign in equal measure. While the sci-fi element isn’t as pronounced as, say, Nocturnus’ first couple albums, there’s nevertheless an undercurrent of “supernatural spaciness” to the overall atmosphere of Telluric Sepsis – part production, perhaps, or part songwriting itself. For the latter, the songwriting found within the nine-song / 43-minute album slices & sluices with deadly precision, keeping momentum always moving forward but equally unsettling the listener; linear trajectories are to be found here, but the sum effect is swarming and cyclonic. And even amidst the brutal breakdowns, the razor-wire riffing runs riot across Telluric Sepsis, peppered with fleeting-yet-furious leads while Deem and Payne’s dual vocals make that swarming / cyclonic effect hit that much harder. Feel the lacerating vibrations of NOGOTHULA and behold their labyrinthian sunken spires!