Meeting somewhere in the bleak wasted land where sludge intersects with death metal, this band from Spain gives themselves the advantage of pulling from a wider range of influences which includes post-punk and crust. There is a very natural feel to the production of this album that captures the sonic nature of what they do organically. More commanding in the overt sense than what Neurosis did they owe a little more to Sepultura. Though their songs are painted with a dystopian darkness rather than the blood-red aggression that characterizes most death metal.
"Oblivion" hits hard with a bigger guitar sound, while the vocals are sung in a more chanted fashion. The harsher vocals come back in as more of a barked accent, before the music ebbs down to a creep. They of course build it back up in a more aggressive manner, but I appreciate where they are willing to go with this dynamically It makes them speeding up into a more typical death metal pace makes sense rather than just being the easy way out, and meeting the expectations. The drums return to a very deliberate Led Zeppelin-like groove. "Fentanyl" is a more straightforward death metal song, that stays the course with its more sludge-paced groove. It is well-paced and arranged for a song that is just over three minutes long.
The crunch is slower and more syncopated going into the last song. The vocals have a more Godflesh feel here. Just when you think this is what tips the balance, leaning them towards being a more sludge flavored, they speed up and get more aggressive. They defy most genre boundaries and do their own thing, it's like Fear Factory without the pre-nu metal production, and "Soul of a New Machine" was a death metal album, telling me to trust my instincts with these guys. I will give this album a 9.5,, sure the influences are easy to pick out, but they have taken the chance to do what most bands are not doing these days and it pays off for them. This album drops July 6th on Abstract Emotions.
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