There is a shadow of melody haunting the oppressive gloom of the title track. It has as much in common with Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" album as it does Neurosis. The more dynamic approach to songwriting here makes it one of the album's best songs so far. The guitar solo also leans it in a more metal direction. The vocals carry more inner turmoil than just straight-up anger in their throat-wrenching snarls. There is enough drive to the chug of "Hypocritical Mass" to show they mean business. On the other hand, the fuzzed-out squeal of guitars is more deliberate than not.
"Chapter & Hearse" hits hard, before gaining more atmospheric depth with a sample the band simmers under. "Terminally Cursed" carries more of hard-core's crushing sports. It delivers a great deal of blunt force trauma with the overt hammering to your ears. They shift into a mega-heavy breakdown that is a very effective use of dropping into halftime on the drummer's part. The coarse vocals find rhyme and reason on this album often locking into purposeful chants. The last song finds the riff taking on more of a technical grind, not unlike what Weston Super Maim did on their most recent album. The chant this time is about nobody fucking saving you, which I am on board for. I will give this album a 9, there has not been a ton of sludge coming my way these days so glad to have been sent this, it's numbered among the top sludge releases I have heard so far, though November is the doom month here where we also dig into sludge so who knows what it shall bring.
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