This is the second full-length from these Santa Barbara grind/metal/core kids . They’re definitely one of the BEST bands in this style even though the vocals are almost entirely incomprehensible without close studying of the lyric pages.
As much as I liked their debut this one does take about 2-3 spins to get really into. That aside, this a pretty impressive release from a increasingly overcrowded style. Hell, even these guys’ ‘chugga-chugga’ parts aren’t boring! This band will have a real lasting power over the years.
(((1))) Sounds like Burnt By The Sun colliding with Enwetak mixed with some very nice ascending/descending scales that all your black metal friends previous made (in)famous. Pretty crazy mix of vocals low & intense plus high & spazzy.
(((2))) Rhythmic, charging a bit death metal influenced (some pretty obvious Morbid Angel/Nile-isms in here) and some of the better elements of Converge thrown in. 1:01- 1:19 is a killer current-era ‘crossover’ type of riff. Lots of pummeling drums, etc. you know the drill.
(((3))) Feedback & flangers then slow doomy riffing into some nutty mix of hardcore & grind with AWESOME bass parts flowing underneath it all. 1:23-1:39. INCREDIBLE metallic riffage (‘ala At The Gates).
((4)) (Note: my CD player lists this as track 4 yet there’s ANOTHER track 4 right after this one, so maybe this is more like track 4.5?) Short instrumental with ambience & faintly mixed guitar noodlings.
((((4)))) Mid-tempo craziness bending Converge into Voi Vod and Wellington? Excellent, steady riffing that leads into a bizarre but GREAT mix of black metal and grind/metal-core if you can believe that.
(((5))) Charging over the top, beat you over the head, metal/grind/core action with some good breakdowns. Jeez, these guys REALLY know how to play scales! (Just enough notes to grab onto and not so much that you choke on them).
(((6))) Feedback & chunky slow, palm-muted riffing into more of that insane blackened grind (?!?) to slow-down parts that sound a bit like Dystopia (sans the samples).
(((7))) Blurr-core pummeling with a variety of excellent shifts in vocals & tempos. Vocals are a bit more understandable this time.
((((8)))) Mellow intro sounding like Katatonia then goes into a big sounding wall of heaviness ‘ala Neurosis mixed with Benümb and/or Burnt By The Sun. Some excellent 1-2-3-4 riffing at 1:33-1:50 then back to Blackened Grind/spazzo territory.
(9) or (9.5?) droning ambience & acoustic guitars
((((9)))) Wallop of SUPER-LOUD riffing & lots of straight-ahead lunges of ‘jud-jud-jud’ but thrown around into different tempos. Twisted high pitched vox but just all around awesome! Just for the record: he’s singing “I sat watching” but it comes out like “sataaaan!”
(((10))) Tech-metal mixed spiraling grind/death/prog (?)/metal--core. Some crazy riffing here. Something like Cryptopsy mixed with Benümb, Burnt By The Sun and Dystopia ? Rad Neurosis meets slowed down Morbid Angel-like breakdown at: 1:45-2:01.
(((11))) Guitar noodling the slowly works its way into the mix, doomy guitars with a nice jud-jud-jud thing (and “squeee” -ing pinch harmonics) then suddenly charging grind/metal-core action but constantly changing tempos. Something like: Benümb + Katatonia + Neurosis x Morbid Angel - Dystopia/Burnt By The Sun ?