Labels: Modern Bullshit
Review by: Alex Deller
I just wasn’t interested in hearing this at all. In fact, Kunal practically forced me into taking the LP off his hands. Over a protracted period wherein my distro order grew and grew, I’d find it returning to the list no matter how many times I politely declined. It became almost embarrassing, even though all of this was conducted by the usually shame-free medium of email. In the end, I just sucked it in and forked over however much money I ended up owing him for however many stupid records it was. Turns out, though, that Kunal was right. This thing is STORMING. Whereas the 7″ was somewhat unspectacular (as well as guilty of featuring two cover songs “” a sin tantamount to leaving the house wearing both a Sepultura long-sleeve t-shirt AND a pair of Sepultura ‘jams’) this thing is like a completely different band, plunging to newfound depths in terms of guitar tone (think: ‘If God Only Knew The Rest Were Dead’) and bubbling over with a sense of genuine evil that could probably reduce a busload of priests to ash from half a mile away. The band have a sound that’s relatively simple on paper “” heavy metallic hardcore that references Integrity, Damnation AD, Unruh, Bloodlet, Disembodied, Systral etc. “” but is possessed of a strange, hard-to-identify quality that raises them above most other acts trying to be ‘crushing’ or ‘evil’. The same sort of numinous characteristics, if you will, that set Integrity’s landmark works apart from all the bands currently wishing their mothers had shat them out in Cleveland rather than pleasant, middlingly-affluent commuter towns. Frankly, it’s rather brilliant, and while it took months for my will to be eroded enough to buy and then listen to the thing the only factor that nowadays dampens my delight – albeit by a mere fraction – is that the copy Kunal set aside for me has an annoying corner ding. Sheesh.