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Unheeded Warnings Of Decay

Everlasting Spew (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Although I find the percussion on this record a little too mechanical, the debut full-length opus from this international (Italy / USA) combo is the sort of chaotic outburst required to wake you up of a morning. Imagine living next door to a building site where the soundtrack to your awakenings is a rattle of pneumatic drills, grinding diggers and constant hammering.

Unheeded Warnings Of Decay is very much a rampant modern death metal opus riddled with technical ability yet colder than an Alaskan lake on a winter’s day. The main positive point of this record is the riffage and the alternation between deathly growls and a snappier howl on the vocals, but more so it’s about the riffs, because even when the band mixes in heaps of melody (‘Haruspex’) there’s still a crushing complexity that’ll bring the likes of Fleshgod Apocalypse to mind.

This is a record that starts as it means to go on with constant flurries of consuming battery (‘Liturgy Of Emptiness’) built upon rampant blastbeats and sneering, sneaking cold melody. Some of the tracks are groove based, hence its nods to 90s tech-death, but it always remains unwaveringly brutal.

The opening mid-90s gargantuan groove of ‘Obliteration’ is a prime example of how the band becomes accessible yet unrelenting. Yes, I do prefer a more organic drum sound and there are moments when I have to submit to the steely aggression in favour for something nostalgic and earthy, but when one hears the thrashing menace of ‘Embrace The End’ or the jarring hammering of ‘Atonement’ one can only marvel at the grinding simplicity and battering dissonance.

There’s plenty of darkness to revel in too with this album, much of it brought about by the hefty bass lines, but for the most part Unheeded Warnings Of Decay is a destructive avalanche, a sonic tour de force of Dying Fetus-esque hostility only with extra meat to coat it. Somewhat of an acquired taste for myself due to its mechanized feel, it still remains an utterly obliterating experience from beginning to end.

Neil Arnold

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