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| Artwork by Mark Riddick. |
Since forming in 2009, Brooklyn’s Mutilation Rites have established themselves as staunch purveyors of American black metal. Solid, but pretty comfortable to stay within their lane and not get too experimental. They also put on a ferocious live show, and that energy has never been properly documented on previous releases.
On Chasm, their first release in four years, they blow expectations out of the water with a rampaging mix of death metal, grindcore and punk, while still nodding to their blackened roots. Chasm is also Mutilation Rites’ best-sounding album to date with much burlier guitars and intricate, gut-punching drumming. It was recorded on a strict three-day schedule by bass player Ryan Jones at Brooklyn’s famed St. Vitus club, where Jones is an audio engineer. The band freely admits in a short documentary they made about the album that they’re primarily a live band. Recording in a room designed for a concert almost certainly helped the band finally capture their live energy.
The album’s opening track, “Pierced Larynx,” sets the tone, opening with a feedback squall and a grinding cacophony before settling into a lurching death metal groove. The song then twists and turns in on itself, barreling through a variety of brutal styles and tempos courtesy of Tyler Coburn, whose exemplary drumming is a large part of why this album is so good. The next three songs follow a similar recipe -- ferocious riffing, blasting drums, gnawing shrieks and withered gutteral growls, and unexpected passages that keep the listener from getting too comfortable.
The band shifts the formula back to more of a blackened sound on the final two tracks, “Chasm” and “Putrid Decomposition.” Though both songs (notably “Chasm”) have moments of sonic brilliance, neither can match the ferocity of the rest of the album and could have benefitted from being shortened. Regardless, Chasm remains Mutilation Rites’ most adventurous and polished album to date. On the strength of “Post Mortem Obsession” and “Pierced Larynx” this album will likely be on my list of albums of the year.