Review by Fernando on November 8, 2025.

While Latin America as a whole has a long storied background with metal, especially extreme metal, a country that has become a stronghold for it, not just for its scene but also as a very desirable stop for metal bands to tour, is Chile. And sure enough, given the country’s love of all things metal, new bands are always popping up, and today we have a black/speed act named Lex Talionis, with their debut EP The Initiation.

From the get-go, Lex Talionis lets you know this is very much “old skool” black metal, or first wave if you wanna be more technical. The influence of Bathory, early Sodom, and Kreator is very much present, as well as taking cues from more modern influences with a particularly grim and violent bent in the music. The EP as a whole is very stripped down, pure, distilled black/speed metal with as little tinkering and studio trickery as possible beyond guitar overdubs and the use of reverb to make the vocals more powerful, the thick and heavy bass courtesy of vocalist Disciple of Tyranny is greatly appreciated and gives the music a strong dynamic grounding while making the music sound massive.

The rest of the instrumentation is also excellent; the band plays with finesse and gusto, displaying just the right level of technical proficiency while keeping the music simple and primitive but still forceful. And while the EP is an excellent display of sheer brutality, especially with the first half, the second half is where the band truly flex their chops and deliver something unique, the closing title track is an epic conclusion that brings all the best elements of the previous tracks and incorporates them for a sprawling epic that uses the brutality as atmosphere, so despite being a more ambitious track it’s still in line with the band’s chosen style and serves as an excellent finale to an otherwise brief but very substantial EP that’s a worthy recommendation.

Rating: 9 out of 10