Album Review: A Pretext To Human Suffering - Endless Cycle Of Suffering
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
International death metal bands are a fairly common occurrence, and it’s one really cool part of the scene that people from different countries come together and create this obscene violent music together. Coming from the US, Canada & Mexico and following a number of singles which have come out over the last two years A Pretext to Human Suffering collates some of these singles along with some additional tracks into a full length Endless Cycle of Suffering.
Armed with a trio of guitar players one of the very first very apparent things you find with Endless Cycle of Suffering is the technical playing ability of the band and how they use this ability to create an extremely vicious slab of death metal. Taking cues from the likes of Origin, Beneath The Massacre with a little Ingested thrown in for those moments when they bring in the fight riffs, A Pretext of Human Suffering doesn't cheap you with what you are getting. Along with being extremely technical, Endless Cycle of Suffering is armed with a thick wall of sound which when used hits like an absolute tank into your ears, it works especially well when the band brings in their more brutal vibe as the punch those thick layers add really is a forceful addition to the music.
What I do find a bit of a disappointment at times is the guitar sound, where at points you can not really make out the lower notes and they sound rather muffled, the higher notes sound perfectly fine and really cut through nicely it’s a just a very minor detail on that part. The drums are programmed very well to the point you could easily be fooled that they were real. My only complaint is you also get this at points with the kick drums as they are not always as punchy as you might hope. It’s all minor details but unfortunately they do stick out as a sore point at times. Vocally you get a healthy dose of deep violently aggressive death metal vocals which are extremely powerful and compliment the force of the music exceptionally.
It’s well crafted, it’s technical and it’s not afraid to just go all out and be primitive. A Pretext to Human Suffering deliver a really solid record which if I’m being totally honest has really grown on me the more I listen too it. Yes it has a few bits that don’t quite hit the mark for me but none of these take anything away from the craft this group of musicians have put into a really well crafted release.
