Labels: self released
Review by: Alex Deller
Some frenzied grind here from Dendritic Arbor, a band who certainly aren’t content to stay within whatever predetermined parameters you might expect from the genre. Despite the manifold blasts and tormented gargles it’s all hearteningly different: the band aren’t old-school, they’re not tech and they’re certainly not hc-inflected but instead more in line with the crazed, abstract forms of little-loved genre-smashers Watchmaker. Things are further warped thanks to a torn-apart virtuosity reminiscent of Gorguts and an overriding black metal vibe which draws on the bleak, shattered sounds of Krallice or Deathspell Omega. Though just 20 minutes long the scope, breadth and depth of it all is really quite shocking – so much so that the constantly-changing textures, tacks and ideas are almost as hard to endure as the unremitting brutality.