Flesh Architect: O Ritualistique
Out 25th March on Sacrilegio Records
Colombian outfit featuring Eduardo Canal of Cóndor fame. Reinvigorates brutal/technical death metal with some much needed surrealism. The sample prologue of banal weather reports juxtaposed with descriptions of horrific murders puts us on familiar thematic territory for this style, but Flesh Architect revel in a playful, off kilter jaunt that injects the blunt object of jagged chromatic riffing with dualities of meaning, inviting the listener to celebrate the horror as much as bludgeoning them with violence. The loose chaos of jagged, disruptive riffing is offset by a throughline of melody that grants these tracks a sense of purpose despite their short length. Thrash holdovers can also be heard underpinning the riff contours with a latent formalism. But surrounding this rigidity are all manner of surrealist framing devices, from spoken word monologues, to static sampling, and eccentric choral interludes. For a brief EP, ‘O Ritualistique’ manages to unpack an impressive amount of information and engaging novelty as far as the rather stale format of brutal death metal goes. Programmed drums perhaps help focus the compositions into more linear metallic forms better suited to unpacking the atmospheric qualities of anomic death metal as opposed to an exercise in pure riffcraft. What they lose in percussive nuance they gain in haunting abstractions.
Verwoed: The Mother
Out 29th March on Wolves of Hades/Argento
Dilutes a rather basic form of droning black metal with tediously repetitive sludge riffs in a clear attempt to drum up gravitas and significance, replete with all the hammed up emotive slurring one would expect from this form of post metal adjacent atmospheric folk metal. The riff package is really just a template however, flooding the music with fleshy content to create the illusion of activity, upon which can be placed all manner of eccentric modules that fail to cohere into a meaningful statement. Dissonance is resolved to consonance in tortured breakdowns that follow the pattern of modern post metal or drone. This form of unearned catharsis is common to much of the contemporary picture of both death and black metal that borrows heavily from post hardcore and modern sludge. The latent folk elements can be deployed to distinguish it from the inherent urbanism of these styles. But the overarching result is to dilute the complex potentials of riffcraft for the sake of foregrounding these overly emotive affectations.
Septage: Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree of Infesting Forms)
Out 29th March on Me Saco Un Ojo/Dark Descent/Extremely Rotten
Septage carry their brand of deceptively technical grindcore into full length territory with ‘Septic Worship’. Taking the packaging and track titles in isolation gives one the impression that Septage are pretty keen on aligning themselves with goregrind. And a significant chunk of this album does indulge in the loose, anarchic blast-beat tangents we’ve come to associate from the style. But – despite how brief most of these tracks are – beneath this façade is a surprising complex of death metal riffing in microcosm, akin to replaying Autopsy at three times the speed. The linear blasting patterns of grindcore are forever interrupted by visceral surrealism, as directionally unknowable chromaticism feeds into odd melodic deviations, some of which only last a few measures, before diving back into bombastic primitivism. In today’s age of saturation, where listening becomes an endless to-do list, many are wont to dismiss something like this based on the generic goregrind front that Septage present. But alongside Sadistic Drive and Dipygus, they form part of a new wave of gore based death/grind reinvigorating this stale and at times clownish subgenre with a degree of provocative originality.
Flageladör: Culto Aos Decibeis
Out 29th March on Hellprod Records
Brazilian speed metal foregrounding the anthemic qualities of NWOBHM at the expense of any underlying thrash nihilism. In this context the emphasis is welcome however. The melodic hooks, both forming the topography of the riffs and the energetic vocal patterns, are thought through and engaging enough to carry these tracks in their own right. Flagelador make no pretence of being anything other than what they are. The solos walk the line between advancing the music via bridge passages whilst adding substantive material to each piece. Always catchy, knowable, pleasing in their lack of surprises. The riffs themselves are lifted from a breed of early 80s metal as it was prior to the explosion of thrash in the US. Here updated with increased tempos, but always tempered by the latent 70s rock DNA which lurks in the background of speed metal. Whilst a feature and not a bug of this style, the fact that this is primarily voice driven means that the riffs are relegated to a conversation with the vocal melodies, defined by their interaction with the peaks and troughs of the vocal patterns. Despite the density and creativity that can be packed into this brand of speed metal, failing to cross this threshold remains the chief reason that it holds limited appeal for the majority of post boomer generations in metaldom.
Wrektomb: Bovine Mockeries of Human Posturing
Out 5th April on Personal Records
For a poppy, groove based brand of funcore death metal, Wrektomb orbit tonal centres with a pleasingly playful pose. Riffs lifted from the edgier end of nu metal give way to My Dying Bride lamentations via transitions that are as enjoyable as they are completely nonsensical. The melodic package is kept suitably drab, in keeping with the blue subject matter. But the underlying rhythmic bounce opens the door for poppist framings, maintaining a conventional sense of forward momentum and pacing, shielding the music from the need to take any major risks as far as structure and pacing are concerned. Individual melodic lines and riffs are a cut above what we have come to expect from the new wave of brand merchandising metal, sometimes going so far as wresting the direction of a track into something that looks like it might be creative. But there is a rigid adherence to crowd pleasing framing devices that keep the hooks coming, affording greater mileage out of what are at times pretty lengthy tracks. Supplementing the poppy death/doom backbone is a plethora of refrains lifted from mid-90s alt rock/metal that trivialise the music into an entertainment product. The result is a fun but utterly unenlightening experience.
Herxheim: Contrapasso
Out 5th April on I, Voidhanger
Howls of Ebb’s Patrick Brown demonstrates a neatly instructive piece on the nature of doom metal with his newest EP as Herxheim. Crudely understood as other forms of metal slowed down, the vibe (and it is a vibe not a genre) of doom metal is tapped into on ‘Contrapasso’ whilst deploying very few riffs that one would consider “doomy”. A thin, jangly guitar tone and synthetic, industrialist mix helps in this regard. Herxheim follow the pacing of doom, tempos slowing to the point of lurching to a complete standstill, tentative builds in momentum, a creeping, stop/start pacing that keeps the music in constant danger of reaching ultimate stasis. But this is told through staccato, angular, meandering riff shapes that are a closer ancestor of technical death metal than they are Candlemass. Background static lends the delivery an impersonal, artificial atmosphere reminiscent of mechanical regularity collapsing into a state of disorder. This lends further credence to the idea that doom metal is a vibe as opposed to a genuine riff language. Yes, there are batches of riffs formed of singular, droning chords stretched across these tracks. But for the most part Herxheim achieve a variant of surrealist modernist horror doom that feels more akin to diSEMBOWELMENT than Voivod at the aesthetic level precisely because ‘Contrapasso’ apply the riff tradition of the latter to the pacing and atmosphere of the former.
Hate Meditations 
Leave a comment