Triumvir Foul: From the mouth of the abyss

How many times have contemporary bands in the underground been described with words like: cavernous, filthy, occult, ancient, rotten... I myself am guilty of the same descriptive action, and won't avoid it in future writings either. Artists orbiting around this anti-sphere are often competent at reproducing the necessary atmosphere implied by those adjectives, and fewer artists' output sometimes makes them feel inadequate. 

For the relatively short-lived Portland, Oregon outfit named Triumvir Foul, their discography is concentrated enough to not make you dizzy: three full-length albums, a demo, an EP and a wish of good riddance after eight years of action from 2014 to 2022. In those years, they managed something of their own when it comes to dismantling the atmosphere mentioned above, with that series of excellent releases deep into suffocating production, tormenting echo and top-notch death / black / doom metal musicianship.

The original two-man nucleus of the band consisted of R. (also known as Ad Infinitum) and M. Cedentibus, bassist / vocalist and drummer of Ash Borer at the time. Both individuals were involved in several other quality projects, and R. is also known for founding Vrasubatlat, a parent label to host the activities of their collective. 

Meeting products that consistently dealt with the darker margins of extreme metal, label and bands walked hand in hand with a philosophy of reverence for punk and metal of death, Triumvir Foul being the most straightforward death metal-oriented flagship of the lot. Imagine being a big fan of the Cascadian black metal scene and the hyper-atmospheric work of Ash Borer, somewhere around 2015. You learn that The Irrepassable Gate would be the project's final album, and then find out about a new entity from the same musicians, playing death metal? My stubbornness barely lasted, especially when I came across Triumvir Foul's full body of work.  

Band name & label: Etymology 

Sources tell us that "Vrasubatlat" is written in the fictional language of the Orcs (the Black Speech) from Lord of the Rings, and translates to "I will kill you". It is part of the full phrase "ashdautas vrasubatlat" = one day I will kill you, and as I read somewhere, a common way for orcs to greet each other. Above sources though, is my own knowledge, and I have to say I've never found this statement or its related usage in any of Tolkien's books. Since the Black Speech was widely unfinished on purpose, fans and literary enthusiasts later filled the gaps in what is called the Neo-Black Speech, which probably is where these words mostly come from. Let's break it down:

• Ash-: This is an authentic Tolkien word, meaning "one" (as in Ash nazg / One Ring). 
• -dautas: Word for "day".

When combined, it means "one day", or "someday". 

• Vras-: An invented verb root meaning "to kill", first used by none other than Summoning on the track "Mirdautas Vras" from Oath Bound (2006).
• -ubat: A suffix that creates the future tense.
• -lat: Pronoun suffix of "you". 

If put all together... Well, you already read it. As far as I'm concerned, "ash" is the only original word by Tolkien in this phrase, but that doesn't make it any less authoritative. It is a fantastic name for a record label, even though most of the bands under its umbrella were not LotR-related. 

Continuing on the band's linguistic comprehension, triumvir refers to one of the three people forming a political alliance of power or public authority, a.k.a. the triumvirate (for example, in the Roman Republic, The First Triumvirate consisted of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus). If I'm right, Triumvir Foul were a trio for a short time in the mid '10s, but more members were included after 2016 until 2022: you may have heard of Max Bowman (Mortiferum, Caustic Wound), Tony Thomas (Witch Vomit, Torture Rack), Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Krieg, many others). Therefore, it's unlikely they intended to be a trio as a support for the band name. "Foul" should be clear enough.

An Oath of Blood and Fire (Demo, 2014) 

The first evidence arrived (initially) as a four-track cassette titled An Oath of Blood and Fire, independently released in April 2014 in a mere 100 hand-numbered copies. The importance of the release became more apparent in retrospect, with Godz ov War Productions re-releasing it on 7" inch a year later. You could already hear the essential elements on it, slaying low-blow heavy death metal with riff muscle and ugly vocals across four tracks and 15 minutes of music. It is an interesting combination of the rancid Swedish strain contained in bands like Verminous and Repugnant in the early / mid '00s, and the doomy north American death metal of the '90s, as perfectly depicted in the different parts of the first two tracks "The Vacuum of Knots", and "Abhorrent Depths". 

Third track "Silence Continuum" uses the doom / death trick even more, and right at the point when you're going to think, "hey that's like a good Autopsy riff right here", a cover of "Embalmed" (track 10 from Severed Survival, a record we should all know by heart) arrives to finish the demo off. More than a convenient reference point, the cover served Triumvir Foul well at the time, even though the horizons would spread when the self-titled album would be released later on. An Oath of Blood and Fire is a truly great demo and initial recording of a band that proved to be quite competent, one that I completely slept on at the time, but caught up fast enough. I also saw some people complaining about the production on it back in the day... Sorry, what?

Triumvir Foul (2015, Blood Harvest / Vrasubatlat)

Triumvir Foul is the first essential stop for anyone approaching the band. Nine tracks, 42 minutes of chaos, originally recorded by R., Cedentibus, and Absque (currently of Eosphoros), the band treated its work with fairly more attention to make it as close to a complete statement as possible. The cover art was provided by the demigod Timo Ketola, something that to me has always been a standard for purchases / proofs of quality especially in death metal, and an unfathomable logo done by Samu Salovaara, its stark black-and-white, minimalist composure works like honey in a bear trap for fans of putrid death metal. 

It starts in anguish with a harsh, noisy introduction at the first two minutes of opening track "Labyrinthine - The Blood Serpent Unwinds". When monstrous growls, a rhythmic hi-hat repetition, and a couple of guitar notes step in, you're almost afraid of what you're going to experience. Triumvir Foul take their time to pick up the pace on this track, as they have studied Dead Congregation's two full-length tomes well, but by the fifth minute, we're fully on track. Distorted bass and guitar lines, primitive riffing, dense atmospherics and and a feeling of enormity and seriousness of a band that isn't willing to succumb to convenience.

Intentionally muddy, with structures that explore several directions, either crawling and buckling up or spewing in full force, the record is merciless: it had me recognizing the tone familiarity, yet the whole of it was particular, such that I felt like this is the Triumvir Foul sound, slowly establishing itself. Released the same year as Degial's Savage Mutiny, I would place these two next to each other on my shelf, even though this one allows itself for slower pacing too. As a track suggests, Triumvir Foul is indeed endless spiritual violence.

The band wants to appear diseased, half-deciphered and, in a way, like an archaeological discovery. Ketola's visual representation is nicely aligned with the buried occultism of the music, references to the three-horned serpents from the Mesopotamian / Akkadian mythology, and the overall appalling but well-written lyrics. I always prefer the faster over the slower sections in these albums, but here I almost didn't mind this, as Triumvir Foul's technical skills didn't overplay either. After all, these guys made Cold of Ages after all... 

Highlights include "Profanation of the Wicked", "Hedonistic Prayer - the Abhorrent Depths of Perversion", and the closer "Tower of Bašmu - The Corruption of Flesh and Spirit". In fact, I think the album starts and ends amazingly. Buzz and supernatural destruction. 

Spiritual Bloodshed (2017, Vrasubatlat / Invictus Productions)

 

  

When listening to Spiritual Bloodshed, the listener who enjoyed the basics of Triumvir Foul inevitably comes across with its evolved sibling, or what the band hinted they could achieve before, now in full display. All weapons have been sharpened, from the delivery to the improvement on the arrangements (the only objection I would accept from someone referring to the debut), the aesthetics and the general quality of the tunes themselves. It's not transparent, it's not easily exposed to you, or in any way smoother. Instead, the hostility has increased, the ideas have been stretched even more, and the carnage done.

Once again, Ketola takes charge of the front cover art, which is of the same nature but also significantly clearer. The brightness of the image has gone up, as there are also hints of color, but only under the dry, dismal personality his drawings always had. The band has invested a lot more on the aforementioned Swedish death metal tendency, as the record has a lot more faster, more aggressive passages now than compared to the demo and first album. The instruments become physical thuds as the vocals emerge from the muddy atmosphere, at an almost trance-like delivery of primitive death metal.

 

After a similar harsh noise introduction as in Triumvir Foul, cutthroat guitars elaborate on stomping rhythms immediately at the tracks "Asphyxiation", "Serpentine Seed" and the powerful "Entranced by Filth". What the band employs much more on this record is the use of bizarre, fast solos on top of hammering drums and fast riffs, which has been voiced by countless death metal bands in the history of the genre, and of course could be tracked back to '80s Slayer. I punched the wall while listening to the thunderous "Disemboweled Pneuma", and noticed a bit of war metal playing on "Vomitous Worship in Rotting Tombs". In a parallel universe, half of that's a Morbid Triumph-era Antichrist Siege Machine track.

 

The album ends with the seven-minute long "Vrasubatlatian Rites" (a distant nod to "Immortal Rites", or at least that's what I'd like to believe). The building of this track in the first minute and something has a sort of static noise that made me think my headphones were malfunctioning at first, but hey, that's probably a compliment for the band at this stage. Melodies are slightly extended here poking at filthy disso-death or even black metal, the solos are in place, and the final minutes lie in a pure harsh noise wasteland. Sometimes you may think you're weird for liking this music, well imagine those who composed it.

Urine of Abomination (EP, 2019)

Going into this article, the Urine of Abomination EP was the one I had listened to the least from the band, even including An Oath of Blood and Fire. When it was put out, I still hadn't fully embraced the Triumvir Foul plague, as it was last album that built my interest for the band and restored my view on their earlier material too. Superstition had a place in my 2019 end year list, but this EP was nowhere to be found at its equivalent post. What makes us human is the capacity for re-thinking.

Concerned with the "humiliation and destruction of the godhead", and while it's more textually limited (four tracks with the same title but numbered I - IV), it may be the most openly explicit release of Triumvir Foul. It's better that you don't look too long at the cover either, which is as direct as the EP's title suggests, yet again the physicality of the music was meant to be on the artwork too. I found less groundbreaking black / death metal than what the band was doing in their two full-length albums, which was still grime-covered, lo-fi and grotesque in its entirety. 

The most notable musical alteration used here is the more distinct sections of harsh noise electronics. They now occupy distinct moments in between the different parts of the tracks, not blurring into them or serving as intro / outro paths to the rest of the album. Imagine listening to Full of Hell, but when the metal starts, it's bestial death metal instead of grind. On the CD edition released by Invictus Productions, the entire An Oath of Blood and Fire demo was included as bonus material, in case collectors missed it the first time. Decent decision to re-document Triumvir Foul's developmental period.

Onslaught to Seraphim (2022, Vrasubatlat / Invictus Productions)

Currently, this release is featured among my favorite death metal albums of the current decade (I know you can't wait for that post on New Year's Eve, 2029). Also, there already is a 4 out of 5 short review uploaded in 2022, when I listened to it at release date. As an unrelated note, I have sometimes heard actors mention that they have a hard time watching themselves in their first movies — I feel the same about reading old posts. Onslaught to Seraphim is Triumvir Foul's third and final record, concluding the project with in glory, fully anointed in the filth of the swamp they created. We should wrap up here already.

Stepping out of the production mud first, the title also works so well. The Seraphim, traditionally the highest order of angels in Christian theology, become the symbolic target of the band's attack. Triumvir Foul aim for that inverted religious imagery for a final stand against it, conceptually linking the record with their self-titled debut. I don't consider it a trilogy, yet a focus on an anti-celestial narrative and an evolution from a fearful, deity-dominated world into a rebellion and destruction of that order, may be recognized across the three records.

Ironically, the project's path ended just at the moment of their strongest musical form, adding up all the experience and positive elements of their back catalog into one forceful record. Clarity of sound is achieved, individual components are followed more easily, the filth is at the forefront, all instruments remain massive, either at the doom or the pure death metal patterns. If one thought of their previous material as a bit all over the place, this here is at Triumvir Foul's maximum focus. Onslaught to Seraphim is triumphant, reinforced in aesthetics, and celebratory of the annihilation it causes.

Even more parallels can be drawn from old (Angelcorpse, Morbid Angel) or young (like Fossilization, Phrenelith, Grave Miasma) bands of the old-school death metal scene, if there's any point in naming it like that. The few shorter tracks like "Flesh Diocese" and "Infected Virtue" are barbarous, while slower sections clearly bring Incantation in mind (e.g. second part of "Serpents' Gnash of War", or "Domini Befallen (To Doom)", a highlight track with excruciating vocals that go near Spectral Voice). At the top and right above, for me are "Bašmu Enthralled, Horned Creations" and the title track. They have everything. 

For me, Onslaught to Seraphim is both the ideal endpoint and best place to start, if you want to get familiar with Triumvir Foul, especially if the production of the earlier records proves difficult to the ear at first. Small discography, but nothing is disposable, and above all, no unnecessary attempts to sound relevant. Just a few records of diseased death metal that got better by the year, then disappearing before there was any time for dilution. Thematically connected, and reaching its climax with the last record, the band set the stage and described the end of the world within these eight years of activity.

Selected affiliated releases:

A few of the many notable releases within the ecosystem that Triumvir Foul thrived, some of them ongoing. I can never not include Ash Borer in this though.

• Ablazen Winds - Kingsblood (EP, 2026)
• Ash Borer - Cold of Ages (2012)
• Dagger Lust - Siege Bondage Adverse to the Godhead (2018)
• Excarnated Entity - Mass Grave Horizon (2023) 
• Urzeit - Anmoksha (2016)
• Utzalu - The Loins of Repentance (2017) 
• Uškumgallu - Rotten Limbs in Dreams of Blood (2016)