Switzerland’s Calcined is a band I came across when I reviewed their debut album for the site back in 2015 and was reasonably impressed by it. The sophomore was equally decent upping the technicality slightly that accompanies a band when they become more proficient. However it has taken quite a while for the band to release this third album coming some six years later. The wait has been worth it as this latest beast of an album shows a radical increase in skill but retains the brutalising core that absolutely bludgeons you for over 40 minutes.

For the life of me I tried to work out what is meant by the album’s title and I wasn’t successful apart from finding out it is the name of a shade of Dulux paint and I wondered if it was taken from some sort of game. ‘Poaching Among The Starry Fields’ is the albums opener and uses a short sample piece I didn’t recognise before the abrupt sonic annihilation thrusts in via a drum fill. What you notice when the song is in full flow is the much lower treble register the songs have. It isn’t quite a muffled experience but the lack of higher end toning makes the songs extremely oppressive crafting an aura of gravitas despite the unrelenting speed. The technical aspects are much more obvious as copious tempo changes deluge the opening tune before ‘Autolysis’ comes next. The flow is excellent as no time is given to take a breather as the song surges in and even though it isn’t initially blasted the intensity is vast. There are mixed vocals too, the usual disembowelling tones but also some frenzied shouts that make the song more intense slightly like Napalm Death who do something similar.

‘Scourge Cloud’ is up next and the onslaught continues with a raft of tempo changes and some bulldozing drum work as the pace is kept at a constant pounding. There are tech flurries as I’ve mentioned, but not the over wrought type of just unerring fret gymnastics, the technical aspects are more ingrained into the flow of the song and album overall. ‘Hic Sunt Dracones’ apparently means ‘Here Be Dragons’ in reference to uncharted areas if my research is correct from the Latin translation and initially is a monstrous blur of blasted snare which has that tin can like sound and a speed equating to be peppered by a machine gun which listeners may say is very like Suffocation, which it is. What this album is also similar to is Dying Fetus, the constant riff changes and deluges of double kick create that sense of unerring brutality that washes over you.

I’ll be honest if you weren’t paying attention the songs could quite easily blur into one as the gaps are short ensuring maximum impetus and maximum annihilation as ‘The Dungeon Master’ unleashes three minutes of monstrous bludgeoning that rarely abates for a second. At times the unforgiving speed is comparable to being butchered on a slab as the riffs are hurled out like projectiles, the drum work is like a tank assault and the vocals are utterly abominable, but in a good way. I really do like the constantly morphing dynamics and when the band slows things down everything becomes a pulverising impenetrable onslaught.

‘I Pity The Strong’ is a tad different initially, the riff has an eerie tone before the ensuing detonation of blast beat that is punctuated by shifts in pace when the riffs change. In some places you get that sense of an inhuman frenetic assault due to the incessant speed and gruesome vocals. The guy is unbelievable in his tone I can assure you. Closing the album is the slightly longer ‘Discipline’ at about six minutes and I know you’re probably thinking the band has decided to do something different for its climax. Initially its business as usual as the torrent of blast beats is relentless and unforgiving yet is imbibed with an overarching melodic feel especially when the song slows down periodically. There are clean shouts too like I mentioned earlier, though less prominent as the song is awash with phenomenal drum work. Just over half way in the song abruptly halts and switches into a semi-acoustic section with clean vocals virtually spoken as the song seems to twist into a far more eerie piece. The reappearance of some metal is gradually done with increasing drum work before the song returns to full blast beat that hurtles the song to its climactic apex of pure inexorable savagery.

An excellent new album from Calcined, one for brutal death metal fans this album is as unforgiving as it is utterly battering from start to finish.

(8.5/10 Martin Harris)

https://www.facebook.com/Calcined

https://greatdanerecords.bandcamp.com/album/to-rot-in-a-honeybeam