I don’t know what it is about acts from the Southern hemisphere of our miserable planet but they seem to have that bit more of a rabid edge over their contemporaries in the North at times. Out of the handful of acts in metal with the moniker Descent, this Australian bunch are probably the most pernicious and pulverising band I’ve heard in a while as their caustic sophomore so ably demonstrates. Their debut effort ‘Towers Of Grandiosity’ was in itself a maelstrom of tornado riffing and blazing hostility but it pales against the outright malevolence of ‘Order Of Chaos’. Indeed, the album title foreshadows the unmitigated assault this sub 30-minute album delivers, which blasts into life with ‘Tempest’. After the corrosive fade-in it leads into the bombarding drum work and virulent vocal style which has one of the most barbaric tones you’ll ever hear. Chain sawing guitar sits astride the unerring velocity yet never without that sense of melody which infects this album throughout. With short tracks on offer there is urgency and impetus, each tune listens like a mission statement of purulent intent as ‘Dragged’ follows and continues the malicious affront.
Being slightly more atmospheric allows the speed of ‘Dragged’ to be reined in momentarily, but not for long as the blasted sorties have a clinical savagery, each hit feeling like a nail gun aimed at your rotting skull. Like I said the inherent melody is there if you pay attention and listen to its nuances that come through the various hooks and slower phases. ‘Resolve’ has a monstrous riff to start it, it has that massive sense of maligned drama, and as the track gets into gear it unveils a more tuneful approach courtesy of the eerie hook that’s embedded. The intensity of the album makes you sweat buckets, its unfazed drive hurtles the album along without remorse as I particularly enjoyed ‘Fester’. The track has old school Swedeath oozing from its riffs, but blended to this band’s unique corrosive delivery, that wallows in miasmic density with periodic blast sequences. But when the song plunges into filth riddled double bass work that it really catches your ear, its weaving catchiness draws you in, especially when the tune further deviates into atmospheric posturing that works extremely well, creating a creepy aura.
‘Filth’ has one of those riffs you think you’ve heard countless times previously but you know it’s just how its structured as the riff has a pummelling ethos linked to the cranium caving drum work which I especially like on this album as it reminded me of Entombed’s ‘Clandestine’ album to some degree. What is certain is that sound and production afforded are beastly, every facet of the instrumentation grabs your attention as the shorter ferocious ‘Safe’ is the penultimate tune. It has hints of early Malevolent Creation but feathered by a blackened toning to the riffing and piercing guitar hook that is subtly ingrained intermittently, leaving the album to close with the slightly longer ‘Despotic’.
The closer has one of those eerie guitar melodies that hypnotises, its loosely faded mix builds into the song’s enshrouding opacity right before the expected detonation which dutifully arrives and tears at your flesh with reckless abandon. There are Dismember touches here, but it is the enraging speed coupled to the wrathful vocals that send this track ravenously into unmatched violence. The cool bass riff break has a crust touch to it, as the pace is dropped substantially to unveil a far more expansive and atmospheric approach, even slightly experimental before it escalates again. The lack of speed on this section makes you think the song is going for a slow calming fade-out, but not with Descent as the song reasserts its intent with the velocity but also the way it parasitically worms into your head and does not let go.
An insanely effective second album from Descent and even at this early juncture of 2022 this has set the bar very high for other death metal releases that I suspect will fail to match never mind surpass. Essential stuff from Australia’s Descent.
(9/10 Martin Harris)
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