Album Review: Earth Rot - Black Tides of Obscurity
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
‘Dread Rebirth’, the punishingly heavy opening track on this third full-length from Australian four-piece Earth Rot, proves in seconds that there is much more to the land down under than progressive rock and bar room boogie. Sinister and demonic, this is a viciously nasty combination of black and death metal, tearing chunks of charred flesh from the carcasses of each genre and combining them into a particularly poisonous brew. ‘New Horns’ is epic in feel, the hideous utterings of vocalist Jared Bridgeman mixing with an infectious groove which in part helps to balance the track; one minute it’s a rhythmic pounding monster, the next it’s all pummelling blast beats and tremolo riffing. Industrial overtones follow, the rusting barbarism of ‘Towards a Godless Shine’ exploding into a violent maelstrom, the band hitting an underlying grove that Machine Head of old or Lamb of god now occupy.
Whilst the band incorporate several other influences into their sound, they also pursue their own ideas and styles, maintaining a thunderous and blisteringly heavy approach which sustains the interest throughout. Earth Rot have heavily toured their native homeland and now look set to extend their blackened crawling hands across the world. Portraying the absurdity of life, holding a mirror to life’s journey and examining the challenges of those uncomfortable discoveries, unexplored drives and desires which contorting into spiralling madness, Earth Rot can merge intricate passages with some blisteringly heavy and intense chaos. ‘Ancestral Vengeance’, and ‘The Cape of Storms’ provide a heady, intoxicating combination of Behemoth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Kataklysm and the sheer velocity of Immolation all wrapped up in a brutal metal fist that batters from start to finish. The latter slows pace to pulverise even harder with the most unexpected funk style breakdown in the middle which is mind-blowing and totally unexpected.
But don’t worry if you want face-melting brutality because these Aussies can flail with the best and ‘Mind Killer’ ensures removal of flesh, regardless of whether you want it; this is vicious. They maintain the momentum with ‘Unravelling Vapour of Sanity’, a screaming, shredding beast of a track which is without doubt one of the most penetratingly intense songs I’ve heard this year. This is malevolent stuff and it’s fantastic. And then we get the closing ‘Out in the Cold’, a dark, bluesy echoing track that is at odds with everything else, featuring spoons from Christopher Zibell (Taake), and yet fits like a glove.
‘Black Tides of Obscurity’ is released on 6th March on Season of Mist.
