Well having seen this band playing tracks from this release a couple of times it made perfect sense for their debut EP to end up straight on my review pile. Following up from their 2013 demo MMXIII this Irish band are working slowly but steadily to establish themselves away from their more well-known day jobs in bands such as Mourning Beloveth, Abaddon Incarnate and Wreck Of The Hersperus On seeing them open for Primordial earlier this year I noted that “Songs are long, tumultuous and at times harrowing affairs,” and there’s no disputing that here with three monstrous tracks spanning 25 minutes playing time.
Once the necessary task of looking up just what a Hengiform is and discovering it is a small henge like structure we descend deep beneath the bowels of the earth and immersed in ‘The Gasless Billows’ which forms over slow tortured doom like riffs and builds in gravity with a hellish elongated vocal retch and then faster pounding drums and guitars before exploding in a contusion of unpleasant blackness. There are elements of doom, black and death metal within the vortex etched sound, all combining and presenting themselves with in an uneasy listening experience, what you really need to look at foremost here is that it is very extreme. There is a sense of melody but its part buried in a muddy bass heavy mix suited to the bands all-consuming demeanour. This is definitely on the ghastly side of things and a sound that all but the hardiest will find themselves running from. For those willing to worship it really bows you down with sluggish turgid beats and riffs forging into bestial flurries of sonic hate. Vocals growl, spit and spew throughout and it’s a filthy sound stretched to torturous lengths.
‘Slouching Equinox’ batters in like the bastard child of Morbid Angel and Portal, with slime and madness at its heart. Slowing into an apocalyptic sounding crawling morass its stalks and slithers away like an illness that you simply can’t shift and is gradually destroying you with feverish tenacity. Brooding slow parts combined with primitive brutality flirt and leave you feeling all the more sickened; this seems far nastier than it did on stage and every time I have given this a play I have felt there is no escaping it and wondered if I am going to survive the jagged, choppy skewed riffing and vomited vocals all the way to the end. Again a sense of groove laden melody is found here but you will have had to dig deep to find it. In a way I’m thankful the last number ‘Forms Become Vapor’ is slightly shorter as I already feel like the life has been sucked out of me. Nasty slashing guitars and rumbling bass don’t help lighten the mood at all, in fact there is nothing in the way of light to be found here at all, this is abject darkness and all that think they can happily embrace it may well be in for a surprise when they attempt to do so.
I can’t say in any way that I enjoyed this so maximum marks go to Malthusian in that sense as this is a very unsettling piece of work. If they go on and do an album that stretches much longer than this it may well completely destroy me when it no doubt ends up in my grip to cover. Approach this one with caution it bites!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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