(written by Islander)
The Portuguese death metal band Undersave do not hurry. Originally formed in 2004, they released their debut album in 2012, and then a second one in 2018, and now roughly seven years later they will have a third one released in October by Transcending Obscurity Records. And while the lineup has undergone some changes during those two decades, vocalist and guitarist Nuno Braz has remained a steadfast presence since the beginning.
The name of the new album is Merged In Abstract Perdition. It’s an unusual name but it suits much of the music. “Perdition” refers to a state of eternal punishment and damnation, and that state of torment and darkness exists in the music too, but there is also an atmosphere of unreality, a degree of abstraction that creates an often surreal experience that’s sometimes unnerving and sometimes perversely hypnotic.
You’ll better understand what we’re getting at when you listen to the first two advance songs from the album and the third one we’re premiering today. Their titles are as interesting and as strangely suggestive as the album’s name.
One of those first two tracks, “Unshakable And Unlimited Levels Of Obsession“, is the song that opens the album. There, the sharp-toned guitars frenetically sizzle, swirl, squirm, and scream, manically cavorting around very deep bass murmurs and more sanely constructed beats, which eventually transform into a furiously hammering onslaught just as bellowing and barking gutturals arrive.
The rhythm section continually switch up their tempos and patterns, as do the guitarists’ layered machinations, which remain thoroughly demented in each of their motifs, especially in the deranged delirium expressed in the soloing. Even the vocals veer, exploding in mad howls, as if the music weren’t already mad enough.
The music’s strange quirkiness and odd harmonies (or dis-harmonies) do make for a surreal but also thrilling experience, yet a surreal darkness also blooms in the music nearer the end when the instrumental escapades become less frantic — still twisted but more eerie and disturbing.
The other one of the album’s first two advance tracks, “Effervescent Futile Thoughts Of A Phobic Being“, comes third in the record’s running order. It reinforces some of the strong impressions created by the opening song — that all of the instrumentalists are both technically top-shelf and free-wheeling in their inventiveness, and that the riffing (if one can call it that) manages to be engrossing and even mesmerizing despite how bizarre it is.
But this second song creates other impressions too. Though the music is still elaborately deranged and still leans into tones of dissonance and discord, the moods of this song are more disturbing, more menacing. Though still warped, the notes seem to wail in pain, and when fretwork frenzies flare and the rhythm section furiously surge, the music seems to channel both violence and agony. Even the vocals splinter apart as they cry out their affliction.
Now we come to today’s premiere, the album’s closing track “Narcissistic Supreme Alienation“. It proves to be a mauler and a mind-mangler, hammering and swarming from the start, pierced by bursts of weirdly swirling and quivering notes, lunatic howls, berserk screams, and a shrieking and riotously spiraling and contorting guitar solo (the solo alone makes the song stand out).
This song seems to bridge the mood between the first two — at times it seems ecstatically delirious, but at other times mutilating and hopeless. Needless to say at this point, it’s surreal and labyrinthine, but also fiendishly addictive; those weirdly swirling and quivering notes from the song’s opening phase reappear and cycle through the song’s closing phase, making for a very demented but potent little hook.
All of these songs, and the rest of the album, are fascinating. They bring to mind the more convoluted and mind-bending phases of such bands as Gorguts, Krallice, Defeated Sanity, and Alkaloid, though Undersave don’t really sound like any of those. (We’ll add that T.O. recommends Undersaved‘s new album for fans of not only Gorguts but also Immolation, Ulcerate, Replicant, Maere, Dysgnostic, and Saevus Finis.)
It’s somewhat understandable to surmise that a band such as Undersave remain unheralded because the gaps between their albums have been so long. And their new album has obviously not been designed to appeal to the great masses of metalheads; as we say in the trade, it’s a “challenging” listen. But for people who enjoy adventures, people who enjoy having their minds bent while appreciating the technical virtuosity of the madmen doing that to them, it’s a golden prize.
UNDERSAVE:
Nuno Braz – Vocals, Guitars
Renato Laia – Bass
Pedro Pereira – Drums
André Carvalho – Guitars
The album’s remarkable cover art is the work of Belial NecroArts (Hierarchies, Perishing, many more). Transcending Obscurity will release it on October 10th in a wide variety of formats — gatefold vinyl LP, digipak CD, cassette tape, and digital — along with lots of apparel and other merch. Check it all out via the links below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://undersave-label.bandcamp.com/album/merged-in-abstract-perdition
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
UNDERSAVE:
https://www.facebook.com/Undersave