Abscession- Rot of Ages 8.5/10
Rot of Ages is pure unrelenting death metal. Music that is borne from Both countries of origin, the buzz of the Swedish guitars and its melody , along with the Teutonic direction and muscle of Germany.
Short sharp and incisive, tracks like War Machine and Prometheus Unbound sear the senses with sped and intensity , the music comes at you , the solos fierce and the percussion sharp and deadly.
Rot Of Ages takes the intensity and then suddenly turns it on its head with some keys and clean singing, before it drops you back into the big double kicking headbanging riffs the band do so well.
Rains of death, and Dead Man Hate bristle with more pure death metal energy, capturing live energy and committing it to vinyl. Yes at some times its very recognizable but try to not to move to the riff on Rat King Crawl. Rot of Ages is infectious pure death metal at its rawest intense form .
The Bleak: Unwritten 9/10
The Bleak: Deteriorator. 8/10
The Bleak are a one man noise project taking as much from black metal as it does harsh techno noise. That is the simplest way to describe the Unwritten and it is the most inaccurate.
The Bleak are a musical nightmare that care little for the convention and troupes of “normal “ Music combining raw black metal with the harshest of industrial noises and electronica . For example, the psychedelic nightmare of Culminate in Annihilation with its Doors/carnivalesque keyboards with blast beats and crazy tom fills. Consume and Destroy messes with the very fabric of timing and it pulses with fury and rage. The recording is suitably desolate and lo fi, the vocals are screams of anquish and rage.
I Can Hear You Breathing dials back the volume but not the intensity. This is Music without compare, it takes the noise acts of the early 90’s and pushes them to an explosion unmatched, its compelling and addictive.
The Bleak: Deteriorator is a recently released bonus three track Ep that takes tracks by Thumos, Glyph and Starer and doesn’t remix them, as it does thoroughly deconstruct them , stripping them back and rebuilding them into The Bleaks twisted version of reality. Throbbing , pulsing and ugly .
Deteriorate That Which Was takes several Glyph songs and turns them into a malevolent number that takes its house elements and twists them into a lumbering force, chaotic out of control , the electronica smashing the senses and the popular consensus of what is music. ALT0176 continues the high paced dance inspired nightmare taking Starer to new depths/heights with multilayers making it the uneaesiest of listens .
Bleak take all preconceptions of what it is to be a noise experimental outfit and destroy them . Utterly
Glyph - unbinding sacred writings 9/10
Glyph return with another harrowing journey into their musical progression. Unbinding sacred writings is a tour de force that at only ten minutes long is to be felt viscerally . Physically.
Forbidden offers the only respite of an organic brutal piece of work more intent on delivering its message clearly rather than getting lost in musical meanderings. the sheer size and structure of the music and its sound is exemplified on Codex and bought to its conclusion on Admonition. Using traditional elements and voice as an instrument the atmosphere is raw black metal without ever delving into the self-indulgence of DSBM.
The mystery around Glyph continues to grow and will only increase as the music gives insight into a tortured , blistering creative force that continues to push the boundaries set within Black metal
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