Labels: Season Of Mist
Review by: Alex Deller
Originally had Elitist pegged as a doom-inflected grind act who drew inspiration from the same tormented realm as Phobia, Excruciating Terror, Defeatist and Kill The Client, but this latest outing shows them pulling in a rather different direction. The pace has, to a large extent at least, been reined in while the sound has thickened and clotted, the prevalent influence now a cloacal death metal sewer-crawl that owes more to Autopsy, Obituary and Coffins than ever before. Opener ‘Burning The Unspoken Gospel’ sets the tone for the rest of the album with its murderous, god-baiting pummel while follow-up ‘Cult Malevolence’ offers a dab of speed and Despise You-ish immediacy before descending into mid-paced mire and fury. Thus, pretty much, the pattern is set, the resulting 34 or so minutes a filthy, roiling morass of bitterness, hate and modern-day desperation that uses bellicose rasps, harmonic squeals and riffs thicker than the devil’s own forearm as tools with which to crucify anyone foolish enough to be left unbelieving by the album’s end.