The Lambs Have Gathered and the King Has Spoken: Sermon To The Lambs - Sermon To The Lambs (Self Titled) Released: 3/6/26

 

From the blood-soaked soil of Chile's underground death metal scene rises a new predator. Sermon to the Lambs, comprising vocalist Richard Aguayo, guitarist/bassist Mauro M., and drummer Victor Araneda, arrive fully formed on their self-titled debut. This record announces itself not with a knock at the door but with the door being torn clean off its hinges. "Crowned King of the Worms" sets the tone immediately: guitars swarm around you like a plague, dense and suffocating, while Aguayo's vocal performance is a thing of genuine menace, a roar dredged from somewhere deep and lightless. What's immediately striking is the band's command of dynamics. 

Rather than simply battering the listener into submission, they weave hypnotic, slow-crawling passages between eruptions of speed and violence, giving the brutality room to breathe and, in doing so, making it hit considerably harder. The title track follows without mercy, a bulldozing exercise in dominance that makes its intentions clear: this is not background music. "Maximum Apostasy" is a particular highlight; it opens with an almost ritualistic atmosphere before detonating into chaos, the kind of track that genuinely feels dangerous. "Flagrum Taxillatum" spirals downward with surgical malevolence, a controlled descent that showcases the trio's musicianship amid the carnage. If your collection runs deep with Brodequin, Deeds of Flesh, Enmity, and Liturgy, consider this essential listening. Sermon to the Lambs occupies that same suffocating, merciless space the relentless hyper-brutality of Brodequin, the surgical riff construction of Deeds of Flesh, the sheer destructive weight of Enmity, and the cold, unsettling darkness of Liturgy all find echoes across this record. This is brutal death metal that knows exactly what it is and executes it with total conviction. For a three-piece, the sonic weight here is remarkable and a testament to Araneda's mixing and mastering, which give the record a vicious, unpolished edge without sacrificing clarity. 

The low end is crushing, the drums punish without becoming mechanical, and Aguayo's vocals sit right at the front of the mix where they belong, commanding attention throughout. The album closes with the colossal pairing of "God Spat and the Man Was Done" and "Clergy's Malevolence", both reprised as bonus tracks featuring guest vocals from Jeff Page of Manifestations. The additions add another layer of brutality to an already punishing finale, and the decision to include them feels earned rather than superfluous, two tracks strong enough to bear the weight of a double appearance. Par Olofsson's artwork completes the package perfectly, his signature hyper-detailed imagery providing a visual counterpart to the sonic horror within. Sermon to the Lambs is a debut that arrives without apology and demands to be taken seriously. In a genre where standing out from the pack requires something genuinely distinctive, this Chilean trio has delivered exactly that: a record that is equal parts technically impressive and viscerally satisfying.

Here's their self-titled track Sermon To The Lambs: 

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