Is cave dwelling troglodyte metal a sub genre? Well if you like listening to what sounds like being clubbed over the head continuously for half an hour by primitive man who have yet to discover fire let alone musical instruments you are in the right place. But that’s OK as to quote Rickles in Day Of The Dead “You’re a fuckin’ throwback! You’ve been spendin’ too much time underground! It’s okay, Steel – throwbacks all got big dicks!”. Size of appendages aside this duo from Richmond Virginia sure know how to make an ungodly racket and their debut album follows on from a couple of demos and EP’s since they built their Antichrist Siege Machine back in 2016.
Death, black, war, bestial metal call it what you will this is an ungodly and uncouth listening experience and one that will only by suffered by the cultist of extreme music seekers. Others are likely to flee screaming in terror whilst those who heed the call will probably find little in the way of surprises as the armaments of opener ‘Incinerated Enemy’ rain down upon them. It’s not a total exercise in pulverising warfare though ASM like to lurch about and throw out some morbid slow melodies amidst the speedy hell they deliver. There’s those up and down the scales screaming guitar sounds favoured by the likes of Revenge along with the chaos of Deiphago whilst drummer Scott pounds his meat and vocalist Ryan (what real names!) growls and roars like a distempered grizzly bear. One track rumbles into another and the titles say it all ‘Cleaved From Flesh,’ ‘Apocalyptic Despair’ and other descriptive nastiness. This listener did find it a shame that ‘Prime Mover’ was not a Zodiac Mindwarp cover, that would have been fun but there’s little of that here.
It kind of sounds like this was designed for vinyl as the sound of rushing wind terminates the first side leaving a distinct gap for you to flip the disc. Some tricks are employed to break up the morbid monotony of the sonic ballast too but they don’t always work. The perceived second side starts up with a shrill whistling sound and the penultimate number suddenly gives way to a needle skating over the record and destroying it white noise that lasts for a painful length of time and totally ruins any musical flow. Did the producer suggest this, did they even have a producer? To be fair the overall sound is thick and meaty but this is just horrible and makes me want to slam stop on my digital download and delete it, ugh.
In the grand scheme of things calling Schism Perpetration a base element and primitive is being kind of nice to them. Sure we have heard worse over time and no doubt worshippers at the font of Blasphemy, Archgoat et al will lap this up but to be honest this one was a bit of a chore.
(6/10 Pete Woods)
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