Starting off the year in as sickening a manner possible, let’s welcome back Alabama-based death crushers Ectovoid, who return with “In Unreality’s Coffin,” their first full-length in nine years. It’s a weird mouthful of a title, isn’t it?
Anyway, “Coffin” is their third record, 2012’s “Fractured in the Tireless Abyss” coming first in 2012, followed by “Dark Abstraction” in 2015 (just reissued last year by Boris Records). The band—vocalist/guitarist C.B., guitarist/backing vocalist S.S. (C.S. played on the record), bassist R.S., drummer C.M.—digs into the deeper annals of horrifying, grotesque death metal, clawing as hard at the guts as they do the psyche. It’s brutal and done in a way that will make people who have been around since the beginning feel comfortable.
“Dissonance Corporeum” starts with guitars spilling and the pace charging, growls stirring as the punishment turns rubbery and brutal. Guitars mash as the leads go off and create smoke, the power chewing through bone, ramping up the speed. “Collapsing Spiritual Nebula” sprawls as the growls choke, the pace snarling as the heat increases. The carnage blasts open, leads fluttering, the guitars blazing with intensity, growls mangling before bashing out. “Intrusive Illusions (Echoes From a Distant Plane)” is a bruising storyteller that will warp your senses, fast, punchy strains pushing into your chest cavity, guitars swimming in pools of muck. Acid spirals as the howls bury bodies, guitars conducting trial by fire. “Formless Seeking Form” chugs, a howl/shriek combo suffocating, muddy terrain stomped as brain wiring burns. The gears head into slow-driving fury before speeding up again, trudging and choking on flesh.
“Irradiated Self” brings storming leads and cavernous wails, driving and menacing as the darkness strangles. The pace turns everything to dust, brawling through a blinding fury that threatens safety. The title track blisters as the growls gurgle, guitars thrust, and the devastation turns to decay. The leads erupt and twist necks, ripping as the soloing explores, hitting the gas pedal before disintegrating. “Erroneous Birth” is savage, the vocals smearing with ill intent, the pace gaining speed as the drums smother. Guitars spill over as the growls mangle morbidly, leading to the fire following the fuel path into total annihilation. “It Is Without Shape…” bleeds in darker guitars, airier melodies, and a melodic gust that sprawls. Gothy tones add to the ashen shadows as the instrumental piece bubbles to its end. Closer “In Anguished Levitation” splatters right away, the growls battering, mucky death metal clogging veins. Humidity rises as the guitars surge and growls pummel, ending everything harshly and cloaked in blood.
It may be nine years since Ectovoid delivered a full-length effort, but they haven’t lost an ounce of their violent tendencies and ability to sicken, which “In Unreality’s Coffin” proves. They open a new year with a smoldering, devastating effort that reminds us ugliness is all around, and that inherently lives in their music. This is pure death with a modern filter that still speaks to the foulest of realities imaginable.
For more on the band, go here: https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://everlastingspew.com/21-everlasting-spew-releases
For more on the label, go here: https://everlastingspew.com/
Meat Mead Metal 