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RANCIDITY
Angelic Obscenities

The Slaughterhouse (2022)
Rating: 7/10

Arguably one of the most bass-heavy records you’ll hear in 2022, Angelic Obscenities is an utterly dense death metal record from Canadian one-man band Rancidity.

When I first heard this I kept turning the volume up and up thinking there was something wrong with my equipment, but soon began to realise that the mix is what makes this thing so bassy. Strangely, the downtuning of literally everything makes the experience far more enjoyable as Rancidity cruise through nine tracks which even when delivered with pace seem to exist within some dark, humid cell.

Every instrument is peculiarly blanketed, or more so stifled, but all to great effect as ‘Martyred’ drifts towards a grind aesthetic with its blasting percussion. However, there’s plenty to get your fangs into here as the meaty riffs chug along with such a density; check out the guttural twists of ‘Progeny Of Despair’ and the rank, stabbing motions of ‘Enthralled By Depravity’. Think of the likes of Suffocation, Broken Hope and Cryptopsy but with extra layers of wet clay attached to everything.

The only respite here comes with the odd ‘Austere Festivity’ which is both haunting and uplifting as a piano-led instrumental, although it does give way to the churning ‘Ablated’ which rounds off this moreish and chewable selection of weighty, thick slabs. Kinda odd… yet mostly damp and chewable!

Neil Arnold

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