We decided to begin our introduction to this song premiere by displaying the phenomenal artwork by The Masked Observer that adorns the cover of the album that includes the song, un-interrupted by the band’s logo or the album title. Gazing at it, you can surely understand why.
The choice of this cover art is the first clue that the style of death metal crafted by Swelling Repulsion on their album Fatally Misguided is itself unusually colorful and engaging, one that takes a familiar landscape soundscape and morphs it into something that the releasing label (Transcending Obscurity) rightly calls a “quirky hidden gem” unearthed from the underground.
But we have an even better clue about what this multi-national trio have done in their forthcoming second album, a clue provided by the song you’re about to hear — “Sullen Light of Expired Stars” — whose title is almost as intriguing as the artwork.
(with words in place)
To be sure, the song is undeniably death metal, replete with ghastly growls, pummeling drumwork, gut-rumbling bass, and guitars tuned to sound like iron files scraping across sheet metal. And as the band’s name portends, it’s also kind of repulsive — especially in the foul vocal excretions and the unsettling and frothing queasiness channeled by some of the riffing.
On the other hand, the music is delightfully bamboozling — freakishly head-spinning as well as disemboweling. It lurches like a diseased beast accompanied by bursting bombs and machine-gun fire, but also dismally wails in agony and convulses in spasms of madness.
Dissonance and discord often reign supreme. The drums erupt in fills of gob-smacking speed; fingers fly across the frets, causing the notes to dart and leap with riotous abandon; the bass bubbles like lava; the vocals explode in layered, strangled screams that raise goosebumps on flesh. None of it sounds sane.
But the derangement is chameleon-like, transforming into insidiously swirling and whining arpeggios of hallucinatory delirium punctuated by jackhammer jolts, and blaring like fanfares of cataclysmic illness. After a few grimly spoken words near the end, a solo seizes attention, straddling a line between clarity and scratchiness and manifesting like a jubilant sprite (a sprite that, like everything else, has lost its mind).
As wild and weird as the song is, the technical proficiency of its execution is obvious. There are so many constantly moving parts, and the songwriting is so adventurous, that it couldn’t have been rendered so coherently (yes, it’s paradoxically coherent) without such impressive instrumental skills.
SWELLING REPULSION is:
Bage – Vocals, Drums, FX
Donovan – Vocals, Guitars
Kristian Jablonicky – Bass
Transcending Obscurity will release Fatally Misguided on June 5th, on CD and digital formats along with related apparel and other merch, all of which feature that fabulous cover art. T.O. recommends the album for fans of: Afflicted, early Adramelech, Defect Designer, Ænigmatum, Disharmonic Orchestra, StarGazer, and Atvm.
Get more info via the links below, and also check out our streams of two previously released songs from the record, “Cesspool of Dismembered Memory” and the title song “Fatally Misguided“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://swellingrepulsiondm.bandcamp.com/album/fatally-misguided
https://tometal.com/
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
SWELLING REPULSION:
http://instagram.com/swellingrepulsion