With the artwork (in all it’s maddening eldritch glory) and the tempo of Chytridiomycosis Relinquished it can’t be helped but to draw comparisons between the new Slimelord record and Tomb Mold’s brilliant release from last year. However that is where the comparisons should end really, as Slimelord have released here a steaming rain drenched chunk of maddening psychedelic death doom. This is what happens when England does death doom, and also what happens when a bunch of the members are also in a band heavily influenced by thrash metal.
The single ‘The Beckoning Bell’ starts out and immediately sets out its stall. The drumming from Ryan Sheperson is so precise from this point on that you could set NIST-F1 to it, which allows the guitars to breathe in a way unheard of on many records. The rock solid foundations, shakes and quivers but never falters, as the other instruments stray in and out of time, move up tempo and down all the while bending the aural continuum with interestingly constructed riffing that only serves to emphatically display the monumental talents of each of the members.
“Slimelord never once slip into the sterile, rather they wallow in the glory of the grim, they harness the power of the swamp and bend it to their will”
The psychedelic torment never lets up throughout, the slimy slide of the fretless bass of John Riley (who has to be one of the best bassists in the contemporary death metal scene) is ever present, with it’s thoughtful accompaniment to the frankly crazy guitar leads. There is some startlingly fresh and unique work in here, which whilst definitely borrowing from the likes of Blood Incantation and long time death doomers Incantation, manages to forge its own path through the swamp. The guitars in particular give this impression of being loose, like rolling stones (eh, eh) but actually are so technically tight, that they confound the listener into thinking back to an era of early death metal sloppiness (in a good way). The depth of the vocals is also to be commended, it feels like Andy Ashworth is pulling eldritch energy directly from the void and distributing maddening knowledge to the begging squealing masses.
This has to be an early contender for AOTY (especially in the death metal scene). It’s so well written, delivered and performed that it deserves the respect of sitting down and consuming it end to end over and over again like some death metal perversion of the ouroboros. Don’t take the comments about the sloppiness the wrong way, death metal is meant to be as much about the feel as the riff, and Slimelord never once slip into the sterile, rather they wallow in the glory of the grim, they harness the power of the swamp and bend it to their will. This record takes one listen for it to force you out of your chair to go and pre-order the vinyl special edition, the longsleeve and the T-shirt, these folks surely deserve it as they have produced one of the best pieces of death metal in recent memory.