(Andy Synn has more words to share about long-time NCS favourites Sallow Moth)
It should be no suprise to learn that we love music here at NCS.
After all, none of us makes any money from this site, or takes any kick-backs – even if bands will sometimes, very kindly, offer to send us music or merch as thanks for a review – meaning we do this purely for the love of it.
And as part of that we also love to support bands who love making music for the sheer joy of it, with little to no regard for current trends or commercial concerns.
Which is one reason – but not, I must stress, the only reason – why we’ve been so supportive of the works of Sallow Moth over the years.
Now it must be said that as much as I might personally prefer the project’s early, Hypocrisy/Edge of Sanity influenced material – their, ahem, larval stage, if you will – it was only on last year’s Mossbane Lantern (which you can read more about here) that the Sallow Moth sound truly achieved its apotheosis.
True, some of the occasional… let’s generously call them artsy… digressions didn’t always land (and I’m not alone in thinking that), but the shift towards a more experimental, borderline avant-garde, approach to technical brutality – reminiscent of the likes of Afterbirth and Artificial Brain, but also equally informed and influenced by the seminal early works of Cynic and Lykathea Aflame – seemed to reflect a similar shift in attitude from band mastermind Garry Brents, moving from simply bending the rules now and then to completely disregarding them.
And this shift continues to reap impressive dividends on Hydrophilous Brood – which, by the band’s own admission, is both a creative and conceptual sequel to Mossband Lantern – as Sallow Moth continue to further hone their particular brand of brutalist weirdness.
References to the likes of Wormed and Deeds of Flesh are certainly more valid than ever here, with songs like unpredictably explosive opener “Nebulous Appendages of Vacillant Seafoam” and “Biohybrid Virulence” (which we were pleased to be able to premiere here last month) simultaneously highlighting the even gnarlier, nastier, Brutal Death inspired riffage delivered by Brents (who is also responsible for the majority of the album’s gut-roiling gurgles and gutturals) alongside the uber-intense, blast-happy drumming of new member Allen Gingerich.
At the same time, the spirit of classic Cryptopsy also makes its presence known in the fluid, almost jazzy, bass-lines and occasional bursts of darkly melodic yet devilishly dissonant lead guitar work that pop up when you least expect them – deftly expanding the album’s dynamic range without replicating the sense of random tonal shifting that occasionally marred their last album – while the clever contrast between sheer metallic maximalism and moody, stripped-back minimalism (especially during early highlight “Distended in Panglacial Advent”) feels like it owes a great deal to the organic atmospheric mastery of Gorguts.
That’s a lot of names to drop, I know, but like all the best bands Sallow Moth don’t just beg and borrow a few bits and pieces from their peers and/or progenitors, but brazenly steal from them and claim them as their own, twisting them into increasingly unorthodox and unconventional forms marked with their own unique sonic signature.
This is particularly during the record’s second half, where the likes of “Arcane Benthic Umbilicus” (arguably the most ambitious, and impressive, composition on the album) and its almost equally awesome companion, “Polymorphic Gnaw” seek to further expand the band’s sound – weaving threads of abstract melody, arcane dissonance, and fluctuating, free-form weirdness into a chaotic-yet-controlled array of chattering, churning riffs and battering, bludgeoning drums whose outlandish, unpologetically out there approach to “Death Metal” reflects the duo’s inreasingly avant-garde approach to the genre – while still retaining their core, essential extremity.
Of course, if pure neck-wrecking, mind-bending brutality is more your thing then Hydrophilous Brood should also more than satisfy in that regard too – both “Driftmoth Vivisector” and the tumultuous title-track reserve their proggier proclivities more for sudden, whiplash-inducing shifts in rhythm and velocity, making for a white-knuckle ride that will have you clinging to the edge of your seat from beginning to end – making this one album (out this Friday) that’s perfect for both knuckle-draggers and navel-gazers in equal measure!