Album Review: Left Cross – Upon Desecrated Altars

When we usually make note of a band’s vocals performance, it’s often to acknowledge individual performance. Moreover, the vocal delivery applies to this record is absolutely spot on and thoroughly completes the believability this record purports. It’s another degree of immersion the band impart upon us and why their vocals feel so menacing. The actual delivery itself has a guttural, coarse aesthetic that, while not moving too far in any one direction, knows where it is and how to project its vocal tones to establish itself as a firm, immovable force in the band’s arsenal. But there are times where the vocal tone does rise to unleash more primal screams, albeit not too often to put the audience at risk of predicting their cues, and these utterances help the record assume the primeval, caveman style the band were evidently vying for.

While the band’s performance may couple together at nearly all times throughout this record, the band do allow things to settle enough for us to recognise the riffs aren’t merely spamming the strumming. There’s at least one instance in every song herein whereby the songwriting will slow down a touch, and really let us absorb the chunkier, refined riffs that hit us just as hard as their slicing assault. This is death metal at its leanest wherein you’ve got the malicious, visceral nature Left Cross are more apt to demonstrate, but then there’s the beefier and dense variation on their sound that only hits us perhaps harder because the band have made it almost expected that we’ll anticipate the ripping side to their soundscape first. Considering it’s their first album in six years, it’s impressive to see how they’ve kept their work nice and concise with Upon Desecrated Altars barely surpassing a half hour in length. That implies tracks that don’t go on for too long, and a quick inspection would vindicate that idea; as a result, Left Cross could do more with their time but simply choose not to, condensing their songwriting into an easily accessible, digestible performance that has the best of both worlds, and none of the fat.

In conclusion, Left Cross have returned with a record that’s as imposing as it is fast. With no hint of a slower piece in sight, the band have ensured their arsenal is fully weaponised to deploy from the opening seconds. The introduction to this album holds no lie; Upon Desecrated Altars is a ferocious and snarling experience that holds you by the throat and only tightens its grip as it moves from track to track. Riffs don’t flow as much as they move with massive weight behind them, they feel engorged with tonnes of payload as they traverse the record to your senses with no regard for your feelings or wellbeing. I can see why this album was receiving so much attention and marketing; it’s filthy death metal distilled to its purest form wherein there’s nothing unnecessary thrown in that doesn’t comply to what Left Cross perceive as the ideal sound they can muster. A shredding album that will leave you in pieces by the end, yet engrossing in its straightforward dreams of devastation.