Immortal Bird : "Sin Querencia"

 

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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Wretched Blessing : "S/T"

Rae who vocalizes for Immortal Bird and drums with Thrawsunblat is putting both talents to use in this new project Kayhan from Colisseum joins her on guitar. The first song feels more like a blackened grindcore. The scowl of the vocals echo into the revered-out darkness. It is an effective song, though the dense feral nature of it only sometimes gets to tell enough story for it to fully feel like a song. There is a more deliberate riff that does create a dynamic. It sounds heavier than it feels. Some of this could be due to the egregore of the music. 

"Pseudoscience" pounds on the more punk end of death metal. For just two people they did conjure up a rather large cavernous sound. "Anathematic" lumbers with an angular groove. It is more deliberate and feels more like a song. When it hits more of a head banging groove things feel smoother, even if that is not the vibe they are going for it offers a wider range of dynamics. Thus making the riffs that follow more effective. This is the album's strongest song. Rae's drumming is impressive on it. 

The last song is more like Death Doom, it's more aggressive in its intent than sludge and builds its speed to an almost blackened proportion. It is another display of effective songwriting despite the ending being abrupt. I will give this album a 9. I am not sure how much mileage I will get out of it as I have other artists who are more go-to for this sort of thing, but if you like grind core-minded death metal that doesn't play by the rule and is well composed then this is worth your while. If you are just into heavy music and not sure about anything with grindcore elements or aware of what that even is it is still worth your time.

 

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