(written by Islander)
Let’s cut to the chase: The track you’re about to hear from the U.S. death/doom band Besotten is an absolute horror-show of a song, and one that turns out to be insidiously infectious — a brand of death metal that’s simultaneously as foul and festering as the corruption of unburied corpses, as feverishly devouring as swarms of enormous maggots, as soul-draining as incurable cancer, and as bone-smashing as a phalanx of battering rams.
It’s disgusting, ghoulish, and nerve-firing in its hostility, but we predict it will also really gets its blood-stained hooks stuck deep into listeners from a first run-through, and thus leave you besotted (couldn’t resist that).
The song, “Cruentation“, is off the Besotten trio’s debut album Eye of the Monolithicrypt, which will be released by Transcending Obscurity Records on November 6th (if we all live that long). It follows up the band’s 2022 demo In Filth It Will Be Found and their 2024 split with Funerelic, Abyssal Synodality.
The album is, as the label allows, “immeasurably heavy yet remarkably nuanced, effortlessly carrying expressive ability along with all its ponderous weight”. You can get a hint of that from the track list, which presents five songs that are a mix of shorter tracks and those exceeding 10 minutes.
And now for some further details about the one song, “Cruentation“, that you’re about to hear (if you know what’s good for you):
The vocals are probably the song’s most viscerally foul aspect. Disgusting vocals are of course nothing new to addicts of death metal, but these still make a strong impression, providing a macabre hybrid of nauseating and frightening sounds (both growls and screams) with just the right amount of reverb to help convince us of their inhumanity.
But the vocals aren’t the only gut-churning and grave-robbing aspect of the song. Besotten have dialed in guitar tones that are both gruesomely gritty and poisonously shrill, and use them in largely tremolo’d riffing that churns like a frothing sewer and whines like insects in agony.
They also intersperse highly headbangable chugs (also foul in tone), freakishly squirming and frantically vibrating guitar-leads, riffing that morbidly drags, melodies that ooze misery, and an even more freakish guitar solo that sounds diabolically orgiastic.
All of that (and more) is backed by pendulous bass-throbs (which enhance the song’s gut-churning putridity) and lots of skull-busting percussive dynamics, which together bring further vitality and heaviness to this rancid, riotous, and wretched experience.
And worth repeating: this is a really catchy piece of nastiness too. Have at it:
BESOTTEN is:
Andy Osborn: Drums
Patrick Sinn-Movilla: Guitars & synths
Garth Purkett: Vocals & bass
Eye of the Monolithicrypt was mixed, mastered, and engineered for guitars and vocals by Leon Del Muerte (Impaled, Terrorizer). Drum engineering was handled by Charlie Koryn (VoidCeremony, Ascended Dead, Morbid Angel [live]). The phenomenal cover art, LP logo, and title design is the work of @lord_serus (Cancer Void).
T.O. will release the album in a multitude of formats — vinyl LP, CD, cassette tape, and digital — and other merch connected to the album is also available. They recommend it for fans of Worm, Disembowelment, Hooded Menace, Abyssal Rift, and Undergang.
After the links we’re also providing a stream of the first single off the album, “Mist of Decay“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://besotten.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-the-monolithicrypt
http://us.tometal.com/
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
BESOTTEN:
https://instagram.com/besottenwithdeath