(Andy Synn presents three fresh flavours of heaviness for you to – hopefully – enjoy)
In light of how long and wordy my write-up of the newIngurgitating Oblivion was yesterday I decided that today I’d focus instead of a handful of shorter, and simpler, releases from recent weeks – both as a way of giving my brain a little bit of a rest and because I’ve been pretty lax about covering EPs this year.
So, let’s not waste any time and get right to it, shall we?
ASPHALT GRIEVING – TRANSGRESSION OF THE QUANTUM SELF: TERTIARY MAGNITUDE
To my great shame I overlooked this band’s debut EP, Lack of Certainty, when it was released back in January (it’s very good) but am hoping to make up for that, a little, with this quick review of Transgression of the Quantum Self: Tertiary Magnitude.
Whereas the former was made up of seven rapid-fire bursts of Black/Death savagery – heavy in both spiteful aggression and visceral intensity, with just a few moments of doom and gloom to accentuate the dark mood of the music – Transgression… puts even more emphasis on atmospheric weight (without neglecting the vicious, visceral nature of the EP’s scalding, dissonance-drenched guitars and scything, dervish-like drumming) in the form of three songs (the shortest of which clocks in at almost six minutes) that are practically overflowing with discordant dread and anti-melodic menace.
Ulcerate/Verberis and Blut Aus Nord/Deathspell Omega are obvious influences, that’s for sure, but even at this early stage in their career the band have already begun to establish a distinct musical voice of their own, especially during those moments when, amidst all the elemental fury of tracks like “Magnanimous Primordial Void” and “Shadow Walker”, they throw in these razor-sharp needles of piercing pseudo-melody and layers of ugly, haunting ambience.
Definitely ones to keep an eye on, that’s for sure.
IFRIT – HAUNTING CHARNEL GROUNDS
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when bands just call a track “Intro”… come on guys, put a little bit of effort into it!
Thankfully, however, that’s pretty much my only complaint about the debut from New Zealand duo Ifrit and their absolutely explosive brand of face-melting, neck-wrecking Death Metal.
Clearly drawing a lot of influence from the likes of Immolation and Morbid Angel (especially during the lurching crawl and lacerating bursts of speed which characterise “Salts of Penitence”) you can also hear echoes of early Decapitated, Construct of Lethe, and Heaving Earth scattered across the three tracks (and one cover) which make up the core of this EP… which is no bad thing, that’s for sure.
Make no mistake about it, this is definitely a record for the riff-lovers, and if you’re looking for gargantuan, gut-churning grooves, twisted, choking tremolo runs, or stomping, stop-start rhythms (all of which, and more, can be found during “Sites Unhallowed” and “Howling Catacomb”) you definitely won’t be disappointed!
WALKING WOUNDED – BESTIAL CONDEMNATION
Metallic Hardcore marauders (I almost wrote “Merauders”, but wasn’t sure if everyone would get the reference) Walking Wounded are part of a new breed of bands who might as well call themselves Death Metallic Hardcore, such is the monstrous heaviness they deploy on Bestial Condemnation.
Just listen to the absolutely massive guitars that chug and stomp your eardrums into the dirt during “Battle Worn”, for example, or the tortured tremolo and grinding grooves of “Unholy Bargain” (which features a guest appearance by members of No Cure, whose 2023 EP, The Commitment to Permanence, you should also check out), all of which clearly take a hefty amount of influence from Death Metal and combine it with Hardcore’s primal brutality to enhance the music’s impact even more.
The band also aren’t afraid to thrash it up or pick up the pace during tracks like “Food for the Crows” or “Depravity” – both of which deploy some judicious bursts of blastbeats to help keep the listener on their toes – or slow things down to really ground ‘n’ pound their listener (“Anguished Solitude” in particular could go toe-to-toe with Obituary at their ugliest and most in-your-face), so by the time the absolutely punishing title-track (whose occasional moments of moody menace just make the rest of the track hit ten times harder) is done you might just need medical attention for all your metaphorical (or literal) bruises and broken bones.
Fans of bands like Fuming Mouth, Incendiary, Stampin’ Ground (who you’ll be reading more about very soon), etc, will definitely want to have this band on their radar – and I, for one, can’t wait to see how much damage they can do over the course of a full length album.