(written by Islander)
No one in their right mind would leap headfirst into a broad pool of water without knowing whether the landing spot is shallow or deep, toxic or pure, devoid of swimming creatures or loaded with toothsome things that would attack out of sheer vicious reflex.
But that’s what we invite you to do now, without a moment’s careful reflection — to leap headfirst into a song off Atavistic Unraveling, the second album by Costa Rica’s Astriferous that’s now set for co-release by Me Saco Un Ojo and Pulverised Records on June 26th.
Well, to be more honest, we’re not asking you to dive in without any kind of wariness or warning. We do have some words of introduction (as always), but we’ll leave more details about the album until after the song stream.
This song, “Dissolution of Eternity“, is well-named: It sounds very much like the soundtrack to what its title portends.
The riffing morbidly writhes and malignantly whines, black-hearted in mood and both gnarly and shrill in tone. Even the comparatively steady boom of the drums can’t constrain the feeling of incipient madness that the opening riff creates. And then the madness blooms… like the accelerated growth of hideous horrors.
The drums and bass start thundering; the riffing maniacally swarms, viciously feeds, and flares in crazed angles; and monstrous reverberating gutturals add to the music’s feeling of untrammeled malice. But as the pacing shifts, the riffing also warps in ways that seem to channel agony and/or fiendish cruelty.
And still there’s more: While dissonant notes slowly slither and miserably squirm, the band inflict bone-fracturing and spinally compressing rhythmic blows (if eternity can’t be parasitically eaten from the inside-out, it can be bludgeoned to smithereens).
The two-toned riffing starts insanely writhing again as the drums blast away. Whatever remains of Eternity will be consumed without remorse, or reduced to frothing and shapeless ichor through the violent administration of acid and grit.
Or that’s what we’re hearing. Now that you’ve been warned, listen for yourselves:
Now for some further details:
Atavistic Unraveling follows the 2023 Astriferous debut album, Pulsations From the Black Orb — which you really must hear for yourselves if you haven’t already.
Like that debut, the new album combines “the swarming morbidity of early ’90s Finnish death metal fused with classic South American madness”, but with other “dread developments” (to quote from the press materials being circulated). Here are some other vivid words from those materials:
Despite its title, Atavistic Unraveling shows Astriferous at their tightest and sharpest, with chops and execution meeting at a nexus of impossibly horrific proportions. Duly armed, the quartet take their songwriting to strange, skronking lengths, rendering their angularity both an unsettling and utterly attacking thing.
Likewise, the slight cleaning-up of production has paid dividends, allowing these malformed ruminations to fully seep into the listener’s psyche – mangling the mind, wracking the body – whilst emerging with just enough linear propulsion to land the record on the right side of art rather than riff salad.
Me Saco Un Ojo Records will present Atavistic Unraveling on vinyl LP format, and Pulverised will handle the CD version, all of it featuring the horrifying cover art of Necrodevourer (Alberto Salinas). Pre-orders are available now.
After the following links we also invite you to listen to the new album’s first single, the unnerving “Arcane Demonomania“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://mesacounojo.bandcamp.com/album/atavistic-unraveling
https://pulverised.bandcamp.com/album/atavistic-unraveling
ASTRIFEROUS:
https://astriferous.bandcamp.com