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This Bristol/Birmingham, England band got it's start in 2011, but were forced to disband. They have now reformed as a two piece and featuring A.C. handling all instrumental and musical writing duties, bring us their debut album, Disassociation.
"Stay calm, stay calm", a voice tells us, right before the pummeling of the first track kicks in.
If you are familiar with any of A.C.'s past work in Purify the Horror, Theoktony, Towers of Flesh, Necrotize, The Solemn Curse or Binah (yeah, the guy likes to play in a lot of bands), you'll immediately recognize his signature drum sound. But what separates this album from anything else he has done is the unique approach to death metal. Infused with slight touches of industrial and electronic music, this gives it just enough of a twist to stand out from the sea of endless releases you'll encounter. Yet by no means do these elements detract from it essentially being a death metal album through and through. The vocals are harsh, dripping with catharsis and burning with anger. DG (also of Fever Sea) wrote the lyrics that deal with the broad spectrum of human emotions: death, fear, anger, paranoia, absolution, and detachment. These feelings are also reinforced in the sound clips used throughout. They are all from real people, expressing real feelings. No horror movie quotes or war cannons here.
Overall, I like the sound of everything on this album. The timing of the hooks are perfect. The machine gun drums, the crash of the cymbals, to that slight industrial tone of the guitar. The electronics are just enough to give you a taste without getting in the way or negating any of its viciousness. I can't say there's any one specific thing that is overly original, but the way it's combined adds up to something much greater than its respective parts. This is one of those releases I can easily see slipping under a lot of people's radars, but let's hope that's not the case.
Favorite track: "Nacroanalysis".