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MACABRA
Estaman

Iron Fortress (2025)
Rating: 8.5/10

With a kick in the lower regions to AI artwork, legendary death metal artist Dan Seagrave comes up trumps again with another algae-green cover for Macabra. A collaboration between vocalist Adrien Weber (Vociferian) and multi-instrumentalist Mark Riddick (Fetid Zombie), Macabra emerges from the slime to release their first full-length album since 2016’s …To The Bone, an underrated masterclass in regards to murky riffs and catchy extremity.

Much muck and filth has been spewed forth within the last decade of the scene, but it’s still great that Macabra can effortlessly glide back into the fray. Estaman serves up eight tracks and there’s not a bad egg among them. The album starts off with ‘Traumassk’ which is introduced by way of a haunting piano before the sinister whine of guitar chords interact with morbidly drizzled trudging and Weber’s thick, stodgy bellows. What I really love though about Macabra is that in spite of the gloomy cover art and sinister, churning riffery, there’s something non-typical about the song titles and subjects.

There is also something atmospherically unique about the way the guys entwine theatrical spouts and spurts around the expected macabre trudges, case in point being the excellent ‘Influencepoly’. I haven’t a clue what the title means but the injections of keyboards add a cosmic punch via Nocturnus. Further unorthodox dynamics emerge both on the title track and ‘Xem-ophobia’, but this time Riddick applies washes of melody to work with the watery vocals.

Less dense and boggy than a lot of bands on the scene, Macabra still manages to employ sinister levels, but they are channelled through higher echelons of intelligence. Slight otherworldly twists and tweaks flutter and flitter within the chunkier tides as ‘Karma Sabotage’ echoes with more subtle resonations, arching towards a heftier but loftier Voivod musically. ‘Dawn Of The Whistleblowers’ is equally as menacing yet mesmerising as chords creep and jar, but the vocal ooze is what drags the whole vibe into subterranean passageways. Weber boasts a mulch-coated tone that is essentially a leakage of slurry, creating the feel of a celestial sewer to the churning stench of Riddick’s musicianship. Closer ‘Green Blood’ is initially drip-fed to the listener via a series of melancholic moans and clanks before a thrashy chugging takes over.

Without being wildly intricate, Macabra’s latest effort is still a multilayered void of suspense and dank despair and a refreshing break from the dismal drudgery clogging up the scene. By being both deft and adept as well as anomalous and arcane, Etsaman easily becomes a contender for album of the year even at this early stage.

Neil Arnold

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