The band's third album finds them hammering in a more blackened direction, along with Rae bringing in sun vocals rather than her more common rasp. The second song is more death metal, but it/s not really knocking my socks off in terms of originality, We can see what happens as we get deeper into the album, but I heard the chugging it's well recorded, but I am not feeling it. 'Consanguinity" has a little more emotion in the chords ringing out, and the rasp of her vocals is marginally more anguished, perhaps the previous song felt stiff without the nuance and just everything in your face. Though it does feel like dragging this song out for five minutes might be overkill. Less is more. If a metal band begins to bore you something is wrong.
"Propagandized" makes the most of the urgent thrashing. The blasting sections could have been dialed back as the song feels rushed in those sections. But the main riff is strong as hell. At least the song does not run out of gas so well can call it an improvement. The more black metal throb to "Ocean Endless" works but then they try to keep up with a hyperactive drummer, and the spastic nature feels like they are tripping over their feet while running down a hill. There are more deliberate sections of the riffing that work but the song feels like a method out traffic jam. There are sections of the song toward the end that might have worked better in another song.
These kids are good musicians but that does not always equate to great songwriters. So this plays into my rule about sound vs songs. These are well-captured songs, but the arrangements could have been more thought. Just playing fast, does measure up to the darker where the chord is allowed to ring out, that has more feeling than just throwing shit at the wall at 100 mph and seeing what sticks. I can appreciate the angular and dissonant nature of the riffing. My preference is for it to be done more darkly and perhaps this dry midrange mix plays into that, but they heard the play back and said it worked so this is how they wanted it to sound.
The syncopated parts of "Contrarian Companion" work for me. In fact as far as the songs on this album go it's one of the better ones. The last song finds a groove that works though it gets cluttered at times by the tech blasting around it. Nothing groundbreaking here, the wheel is far from being reinvented. If you want technically sound blackened death metal coming from cool kids who would normally be playing grindcore, then you might have been clued into them by their first two albums, and likely a fan if you clicked this review. I will give this a 7.5, better than average thinking man's metal. They don't dumb it down but are not as smart as they think they are, but this might be your jam! It drops October 18th on 20 Buck Spin,
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