Since forming in 2021 this US death metal act has released a demo, split and EP in quick succession as this marks the band’s first, and hopefully not the last, full length. You rarely get to hear a straight up death metal album these days due to many of the acts adding technical or progressive touches and even adding cleaner vocals much to chagrin of old school death fans. This album is as old school death metal as it comes and if it had been around in the late 80s or early 90s it would have been revered for eternity. However it is 2024 and bands that favour that older style of death metal will always find favour with this writer. There is no trickery involved in this release whatsoever as a noise styled intro piece awaits the listener when you press play. Said intro only serves to add terror as the opening tune is ‘Anapsid’ and smashes into you like a battalion of tanks. There are definite similarities to Bolt Thrower on this album and that should be praised as whilst the formula for the said defunct outfit has been replicated many times I have rarely heard a release that comes close to it without straight up plagiarising.
What you also notice about this album is the lack of blast beats, the pulverising drum work is oppressively dense as ‘Totem’ follows the opener with a slow pounding riff and stomping drum beat. Vocally the guttural tones are excellent, very few changes in tone bar the occasional shouted screech here and there. ‘Totem’ is bulldozing from start to finish as the double bass carpet bombs the song with a slight increase in pace. ‘Derelict’ has an ominous riff opening, a gradual build-up of drum work and staunch crushing density that immerses the listener. The drum work is what makes this album so palpably claustrophobic as even the cymbals sound bloody heavy on this release.
‘Hive’ is monstrously hefty, the double bass having that war like ethos as the riffing takes on a guise similar to Memoriam as I also thought the band was similar to Jungle Rot due to groove infestation within the songs overall. ‘IWL’ has a slow pervasive riff opening, its nonchalant pacing acts like an intro phase before the predicted escalation in power which duly arrives and links into the slightly longer ‘Extinction’. It is virtually doom-death here, the funereal tempo is austere and cloying as the oppressive almost choking tone feeds into a speed increase. Vocally this is guttural stuff but with that sense of clarity so you can understand the lyrics being sang, if you pay attention of course.
Thunderously slow ‘Terminal’ has that aura of suffocating sonic thuggery as the slower drum work enables the track to unveil an abrupt pace increase yet retains the skullcrushing onslaught. There are only so many superlatives I can use to explain how dense and brutal this album is as it closes with ‘Stuck’. Like the previous tunes the closer has that sense of impending dread as the doom-death like pacing links into an excellent pace change with some changes to the vocal tone. It is immeasurably heavy here, the drum work underpinning everything so that it feels like a slow moving train is rumbling over you. The deft deviations in tempo don’t go unnoticed either as the song floods the listener with that earth shattering groove I mentioned earlier.
An excellent death metal demolition, one for purists craving Bolt Thrower but also acts like Frozen Soul and Benediction come to mind as I sincerely hope to catch this band live at some point.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
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