Latin America is the birthplace of a considerable extreme metal legacy. Peru too was the soil upon which late ’80s, to early 90’s bands like Mortem, Kranium, Sepulcro etc flourished. Among them were Saram, who formed in Lima, in 1998

Saram started as Neuroparalya (1991-1993), a noise core band, but eventually switched to doom/black metal as Saram Scivit (1993-1995), shortened their name and finalized as the death/thrash metal act Saram, until their dissolved in 2007. Their line-up consists of members involved in other important extreme metal projects such as Demonomancy (1991), Anal Vomit (1992), Goat Semen (2000), Evil Priest (2015) and Dismorfia (2019) among others.

Saram didn’t put out much material during their lifetime, just three demo cassettes and an EP. Werewolf Records gathers (most) of that material and unleashed it as the release to hand Lima Hell- a compilation, resurrecting top-notch Peruvian sonic armageddon.

Their sound is manic, raw and unpolished kind of blackened thrash/death metal found in their region. Ripping thrash metal riffs, encapsulating all sorts of death and black metal elements, hyper speeds as well as more slow-paced moments, insane vocals, resembling Tom Araya of Slayer in the screams, topped with Wagner Moura Lamounier of Sarcofago and bombardment of either blast beats or a confrontational, classic punch. All sorts of influences of what extreme metal sounded like back in the day, can be found here. A semantic output of Latin American metal lust. Tracks like “(From the Pits of) Lima Hell” with its slow-paced punch and mesmerizing riff, or “Witches Spell” with a serious Slayer reference, or the closing track “Thrash To Destroy”, intoxicated with an insane US thrash dose, are among my favourite, along with the Sodom cover of course, which is an absolute blast (to the past)! Saram leaned more towards the American way of thrashing rage!. The production of the comp is obviously old-school, if it has been remastered for this release, it’s been done with care- in comparison with some contemporary remastering that ends up with a plastic and soulless sound. 

An almost perfect retrospective. A serving of nine tracks clocking to thirty minutes, featuring the complete Metal Mayhem Genocide demo, side A of Embrujo 7”, two exclusive rehearsal tracks from 2005, never before recorded in the studio, plus a Sodom cover (“Proselytism Real”); early Sodom is evident in Saram’s sound.

Though not everything the band released is present & correct as the  Sinners and Ad Perpetuam Saram demos are missing, as well as the side B to 7” inch Embrujo. But nevertheless, Lima Hell is a full-on noisy glory, or a sonic grenade in our hands, with the pin pulled. Not a retro contraption or anything hyped or marketed, this is the real deal.