(Here’s a review by DGR of an album by the northern California crust band Arüspex, which was released in January by the band and later in the year on tape by Fiadh Productions.)
Crust-punk group Arüspex have had one of the longer tenures on the “to review” list that we are slowly working our way through now. While I can’t claim that I was there on the ground floor with the Sierra Nevada punks, for what little it is worth at the very least I’ve been digging into their newest release The Death Instinct since the end of March. Small potatoes when you consider that The Death Instinct came out in the middle of January, but what would we be if we didn’t have releases in our queue that we’ve missed the bus on so bad that the local municipalities have had time to defund the public transit system and replace the bus stops with lame “scenic” pottery and more lanes for cars?
Arüspex, like many groups, lie in an in-between realm within a couple of different genres lines, making them semi-difficult to define and an exciting listen because they’re equally somewhat hard to predict. Genre definitions themselves being for fools like us who build mood-playlists. Why do that when the whole album is a proverbial mood? The group’s core is very much that of a crust punk band, and the low-end-driven riff work and equally voracious thud on the drumkit no doubt fortifies that, but again, like many bands, a handful of other influences are also comfortably seated on the fringe of The Death Instinct that politely move it beyond mere sub-genrefication and into something vicious on its own terms.
The Death Instinct is not an album that is “heavy” in our traditional vernacular. Though it would be fun to witness, it is doubtful the Arüspex crew would go blow for blow audio-wise with some of the more guttural-emanating groups that we love to write about in these hallowed halls. The Death Instinct still has some hefty-punch to it and occasionally hits like a freight train; Arüspex were able to have Greg Wilkinson (BrainOil, Autopsy, Static Abyss) over at Earhammer Studios tackle much of the recording and mastering of their latest release, and it has been placed well within the grimier side of punk music.
For nine songs and around a half-hour you can let Arüspex drag you through a whirlwind tour of hybridized crust and punk music that wields any genre it can get its hands on as if it were a weapon to leave no room for interpretation. It is an album whose outlook is bleak and whose music absorbs much from our modernized metal world, meaning you’ll detect faint traces of blackened atmospherics as those lines have continually blurred over the past decade, as well as doom-and-sludge groove, and when the band picks it up at times you can feel them treading on the edges of the more explosive side of grindcore. It is much to take in, and The Death Instinct has a wider journey in mind that places Arüspex right in the maelstrom that is the current musical underground.
The Death Instinct veers wildly through a thorny forest of music. Opener “The Pyre” alone is near-grindcore in its opening before it careens its way through circle-pit-worthy thrash riffs and full-force two-step guitar work. “The Pyre” could have Arüspex pummeling their way through a multi-directional vocal attack – as the band uses a few different combatants behind the mic – to then quickly crash their way through a black metal guitar lead and a slow droning bit. The song halts and starts up again at such rapid-pace that it is anarchic in its philosophy.
Follower “Elegant Decay” is a little longer but could be more easily-recognized as pulling from the hardcore punk and even post-rock and emo collisions that’ve been happening in recent years. Arüspex show no fear for throwing in a moment or two of haunted beauty, before they scorch the ground before it, as one might expect. It’s a common play but damned if it doesn’t still work when the gears shift in “Elegant Decay”.
“Wither” is the song where you can start to witness Arüspex tip-toeing around the edge of grindcore. Its two-minutes and eighteen-seconds conjures up some of the fury that drives a group like Distaste forward, and the blurring of lines into a larger musical mass makes “Wither” one of the early album highlights – though to be fair you don’t exactly wait long to reach it.
As Arüspex veer wildly on their way through musical styles over the course of their opening five or six songs, you do settle into a secure zone as that opening segment seems to put all of their cards on the table – until you reach “The Only Constant”. “The Only Constant” has a calm opening that appears out of nowhere after the first handful of songs on The Death Instinct are so focused on a musical catharsis that you almost don’t trust it at first. The eventual collapse into something much meaner can be seen from a mile off, but even then, Arüspex throw their whole weight behind it because those thirty-seconds or so following the opening minute are absolutely chaotic. It isn’t until the dual-vocal attack has calmed down slightly that it seems like the song congeals into something recognizable, even when the band descend back into that opening segment but now have the howled vocals of multiple phantoms wailing over the top of it.
“The Only Constant” has a lot of passion being put into it and the ending of the song plays out as if the band themselves have burned their candles at both ends and have nothing left. The opening groove of “Ask Your God” following and its mid-tempo forward march is almost a balm for the soul if it weren’t a resurrection of Arüspex reminding us just how bleak everything is throughout The Death Instinct.
The Death Instinct has a lot of ghosts it is trying to expel over its near-half-hour with you. Arüspex roll through song after song with a reckless abandon that is equal parts joyful and self-destructive. There is both darkness up front – though made palatable through post-metal atmospherics – and in the wings of The Death Instinct. As much crust-punk as they are grindcore and emo-tinged, Arüspex are painting with multiple different palettes, and it is easy to be drawn in.
The Death Instinct is an album that has emotional catharsis as much as it has emotional outburst and a tendency to lash out attitude-wise. It starts surprisingly mean, but then once Arüspex find their consistent “somewhere in between the musical void” to inhabit, the music of The Death Instinct actually does come alive, and the twists and turns of the music later on in the tracklist become just as interesting as its overriding musical arc.
While we are, as covered before, incredibly late to the bus when it comes to the Arüspex crew, The Death Instinct is an album well worth spreading the word about.
https://aruspexcrust.bandcamp.com/album/the-death-instinct
https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/album/the-death-instinct
https://www.instagram.com/aruspexcrust/