OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE: “WITH INEXORABLE SUFFERING”

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by California-based Our Place of Worship Is Silence, which is being released today by Translation Loss Records., and features striking cover art by Wrest of Leviathan.)

 

When you get right down to the beating, bleeding heart of things, a band is really just an organic machine, a biological mechanism of meat and metal, driven by electrical impulses and instinctual imperatives to procreate and disseminate its memetic ideas as far and as wide as possible.

This is something that Our Place of Worship is Silence seem to have grasped on an innate level with their vicious and hate-fuelled second album, With Inexorable Suffering, which finds the deadly duo simultaneously fleshing out their gruesome sound whilst also stripping it back to its most lethally efficient form.

 

 

Mechanically, almost robotically, tight, yet dripping with venom and viscera, …Suffering is locked and loaded for bear with an array of flesh-ripping riffs and pounding, pneumatic rhythms, along with a vocal delivery which I can only describe as “monstrous”.

“Chronicles of Annihilation”, for example, is suitably annihilating in nature, bludgeoning your auditory receptors with a no-qaurter barrage of gut-churning chugs and ear-scraping dissonance, while “The Blind Chimera and Its Death” adds an extra dash of insidious melodic menace and skin-crawling atmosphere to its scorching sonic artillery, after which the incredibly savage “Labyrinth Disorientation” manages to blend in some hellishly hooky riffage amongst all the dizzying aggression and choking metallic murk.

Of course it’s not the most original piece of work by any means, but then “originality” is often overrated, particularly in cases like this, where the purpose of the record is not so much to push the envelope as it is to fill it with the most lethal sonic poison which the band can concoct, and then deliver it as quickly and efficiently as possible, so as to ensure the maximum possible casualty rate.

At just under 34 minutes in length, With Inexorable Suffering is one lean, mean, Death Metal machine, and unlikely to wear out its welcome any time soon, particularly when you take into account how disturbingly catchy – as well as utterly crushing – tracks like “Defiance and Upheaval” and gargantuan closer “Lawlessness Will Abound” really are.

So, in conclusion, while it may not exactly break any new ground, this album is still one seriously bloody and belligerent slab of prime-cut Death Metal that should leave fans of Immolation, Ulcerate, Morbid Angel, et al, more than satisfied with their latest ugly acquisition.

 

Translation Loss:
http://translationlossrecords.bigcartel.com
https://www.facebook.com/TranslationLossRecords

Our Place of Worship Is Silence:
https://opowis.bandcamp.com/album/with-inexorable-suffering
https://www.facebook.com/ourplaceofworshipissilence