Welcome
to the first new article after our Pyramid Noise’s brief hiatus. I have
recently started a full time work and the transition from having all day to
write articles to limited time in the evenings and at weekends has been a bit
of a shock. It is safe to say, however, that
this Pyramid is not going to crumble but will stand tall for millennia like its
brothers in Giza. Well okay maybe not quite that long… whatever here’s a review
I gone and did about a Brutal Slam album.
Despite
being the Poster Child for the dark extremes of Death Metal, no one could ever
really honestly say that Slam goes in for that whole “variance” thing. Slam is
chromatic, heavy and is wearing sweatpants with any progression taking the form
of gimmicks and not actual development. Unless of course you’re Ingested, who may not of exactly pushed
Slam into dimensions unknowable by mankind, but have certainly mixed things up
enough to keep Slam interesting.
The Architect of Extinction takes
firm steps in to 90's Death Metal territory whilst keeping one foot doggedly in
the modern world of Slam. This is the way Ingested have chosen to
develop their sound. It may not sound much on paper but mixing a Slam riff
driven ethos with old school sensibilities allows the best parts of the genre;
the heavy two step grooves of Slam riffs, to be sifted from the worst; only
having the heavy two step grooves of Slam riffs. What we have instead are
tracks filled with riffs that Slam as much as they Thrash. By combining the signature chromatics of Slam
into the more fast paced styling's of Death Metal Ingested have created
a style of riffing that is as much 90's Florida as they are 2000's NYC. Of
course not forgetting there are slams a-plenty, there would be disappointment abound
if such things were omitted. It’s an interesting approach to take with this
kind of sound and it is a most welcome change. It doesn't hurt that, unlike a lot of other Modern Non-Traditional Extreme Metal bands, Ingested can actually write some decent Death Metal riffs and not have them sound like filler between breakdown sections.
.
Things aren’t all blood-stained
rainbows and cannibal unicorns however, as a few things really hurt The Architects of Extinction, though admittedly
few of them have little to do with the music itself.
Firstly, the production,
courtesy of Cryptopsy's Christian Donaldson who completely brick walls
the shit out of everything. There are only two people who can get away with
that and they are Phil Spector and Devin Townsend. And since Donaldson is
neither of those people his production work makes this release sound like every
other over compressed Extreme Metal release. You can't deny, however, that it still sounds really damn heavy, just not uniquely so.
The second thing is likely
to make me unpopular, but it did effect my ability to fully enjoy the album. As
an extreme genre, Slam and Brutal death have bad had their share of criticisms,
especially when it comes to misogyny. Bands, albums and songs that all sound
like they’re named after a torture act from a particularly unpleasant and surprisingly
sexist version of the film SAW. Now you can say that’s all well and good and
that it’s just a joke and to an extent I can agree.
On this album there is a sample however, which I struggle to over look. On the track Endless Despondency, there is a clip taken straight from Elliot Rodger’s final vlog before he killed a whole bunch of people because Women wouldn't sleep with him. This emphasises the link
between the genre and misogyny to an uncomfortable level. I'm sure the band don’t
condone such things but you've got to ask why they decided to glorify his
speech with the outro slot on one of their songs. Is it in the name of cringe
worthy brutality? Something that does indeed plague this album just as much as
it does many “brutal” bands (‘Speak of the Devil and I will appear…’ I mean c’mon
now…) If it is then I’d argue it’s done in poor taste and either way I find
myself shifting uncomfortably whenever this part comes on.
Back to the more mundane
issues with the music itself. While it is certainly refreshing to not here a
band open string chug by default, Ingested have a default all of their
own. It goes something like:
>Highly Chromatic 90’s
Death Metal inspired Riff
>Tremolo Picking
>Mini-Slam Riff
>??????????????
>Ingested Album
There is enough variety to
keep the album listenable, but after a while you can’t help but wish they’d add
in some other elements than reverting to the same riff formula over and over.
Tracks like I, Despoiler and Penance
display melodic aspects that are found in few other places on the album. It’s a
real shame as The Architect of Extinction
could really use a bit of a mix up at point and those melodic passages are
surprisingly well executed. There’s even an acoustic guitar… on a Slam/Brutal
Death Metal album… well damn.
So why, after all this, the
repetition, the questionable samples and the rather dull production, do I still
find myself really enjoying this album? Well the answer is simple, this is Slam
infused 90’s Death Metal, it’s not pretending to be anything more and it doesn’t
need to. It gets Extremely Heavy Metal down to a tee in a way few other bands
manage. In reality I have very few complaints with the actual music on The Architect of Extinction. Repetition?
Brutality over Creativity? Get fuckt m8, this is Brutal Slam, your right to complain about
such things left at the same time as you teeth left your skull from being
punched in the face by the vocalist’s gutturals.
3.5/5
