So, Jay Evans calls himself the Slam King does he? Well, in my friendship group I’m also referred to as the Slam King, so it only seems fitting for me to take on this review. I’m much like many BDM fanatics, a big fan of Ingested’s debut record Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering. I’d go as far as to call it classic, timeless, essential and many other accolades, add to this the fantastic North-West Slam Fest split with Kastrated and Crepitation and you’ve got one hell of a start. These Manchester, sorry Slamchester based Metallers have forged quite a career for themselves, albeit in a less Brutal Death direction, straying further into the realms of Brutal Deathcore they’ve sort of gone from underground icons to more mainstream Death Metal fare that caters more towards newcomers perhaps. Nonetheless, they continue to create and appear to garner quite the fanbase, so let’s see how their latest full length The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams from Metal Blade fares.

Nice to see that no time is wasted as the chugging intro of Paragon Of Purity kicks in, big vocal and guitar hooks, followed immediately by powerful ‘Slams’ and further vocal range. It certainly leans into the Deathcore territory with the more melodic nature, the occasional vocal twist and the ‘Slams’ are often a touch on the breakdown side of things. The bigger production also aids in an overall polished but less Brutal Death sound. Endless Machine brings essentially more of the same, but I have to say I’m genuinely a lot more into it than I had anticipated. I’ve often written anything past the debut off as highly mediocre but this is a nice surprise. It kind of gives me early Whitechapel vibes at points, there are certainly some more Hardcore portions to be found in Where No Light Shines, when you couple this with great melodic hooks and interesting harsh vocals with a wide range it makes for something actually pretty great. Seeing that the next track features Josh Middleton of Sylosis and is titled Expect To Fail, I anticipate that this might be the point where my interest wanes. Truth be told it isn’t awful but it does have a more Metalcore feel to it, also featuring a member from Sylosis is about the least Slam thing one could do but I need to remember that the debut album was a long time ago. Starve The Fire brings things back luckily it still feels very Deathcore however and is the first song on the album to feature clean vocals but it’s hook laden and strong.

Okay so first half, pretty good, not really sure when I would ever pick to listen to an album like this over say Devourment but I guess if I were ever on a Deathcore binge then perhaps. Numinous brings us a lot more melody, the transition into this song sadly feels a little disjointed but nonetheless it’s a welcome break and shows Ingested’s plethora of influence. A very gentle and ethereal song, almost hypnotic and beautiful until the chugging guitars come in. I feel like it would have been better as a purely chill song, but then this is coming from a serial lover of Ambient and Dungeon Synth. Adding to the guests that shouldn’t be here we have Mark Hunter from Chimaira on In Nothingness, his guesting aside it’s a perfectly fine track (apart from the cleans), but honestly not one of the most exciting on the album. Pantheon brings everything back into focus with its snappy delivery, and some truly awesome vocals at points (that sound a lot like Travis from Cattle Decap), and some killer drum fills. Coming towards the closure of the album we first have Kingdom Of Sand, and I have to say that whilst it’s still good this is probably the first point where I’ve thought, I’m kind of done with this album now. It’s all very competent and good but maybe I’ve just reached my daily threshold for Deathcore. A Path Once Lost is the final song and ticks the box for the predictable longer, more progressive type track. To be fair though it’s actually much like Numinous in the sense of it breaking things up a little. The clean vocals aren’t my favourite, not that I’m against cleans, but these just sound a bit like lame Nu Metal, I have heard much worse though. When the harsh vocals and big guitars crash in though it all kind of makes sense and the cleans that follow in this more Metal portion are a lot better, they feel bigger and a lot more epic. In some sort of weird twist this final song is both one of the best and worst songs on the record.

Well that was quite the wild ride, some highs and some lows, and I’m not just talking about the vocal range. So first off if you’re an Ingested old guard don’t come here expecting the debut, it’s long gone, we have to accept that. What Ingested have become might not be to everyone’s tastes, it’s a weird amalgamation of Death Metal, Deathcore, BDM, Slam, Metalcore and more, is it bad? Absolutely not, would I listen again, most probably yeah. I think a good honest way to sum it all up is that it’s a lot better than I expected.

(7/10 George Caley)

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https://ingested.bandcamp.com/album/the-tide-of-death-and-fractured-dreams