Album Review: Festergore - Constellation of Endless Blight
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Let’s have ourselves a bit of New York death metal now as we peer upon Festergore and their first full length album: Constellation Of Endless Blight. Formed only in 2021 out of New York, United States, Festergore had already released their first Single and an EP, Synchronizing The Kozmos, in just a year onwards. The following year, 2023, would be big for them owing to the release of their first Split alongside Plasmodulated, Ectospire and Necrovision (here’s hoping they each have records of their own out soon), and finally slated for a November 29th release window Festergore are here to put their first considerable mark upon the metal conscious. Though the immediate band roster has altered slightly, acquiring a new vocalist in 2022, then a new bassist in 2023, the band are already signed on to Personal Records, and thus Festergore are ready with their first album to show us what they’re made of.
Immediately the band establish a gravitas to their sound. Though this is their first album they aren’t treating this as merely another release, this is many people’s first time experiencing what Festergore are capable of (myself included) and thus the band have seen to it their first impression is as massive and concrete as they may render it. But it is curious because whilst their riffs are huge and strike with clenched, dense impact the overall production of the record isn’t entirely devoted towards devastation. The instrumentation is wild, its unrefined therefore it harnesses a more savage tone than other death metal acts, and the vocals are coarse, alluding to the raspy nature of their frontman’s timbre. But even with all these taken into account, the album isn’t wholly crushing which does work to their advantage since we know we can digest what’s coming our way and understand we’re not seemingly punished for doing so. As a result we’re given the opportunity to really allow ourselves to sink further within their soundscape knowing our senses aren’t going to be pummelled at every moment.
The mix is also pretty interesting too, for the band have managed to craft a raw and scraping style of guitar attack without it impacting too strongly upon the rest of the album. Festergore utilise a much more barbaric and bloodied form of guitar tone than their contemporaries; it’s evident they had no pretenses about giving their record any kind of shine or gloss, it’s an ugly, rancid, bulbous death metal that cares little for its exterior appearance. Yet, though the riffs clearly project this scathing aesthetic, it doesn’t permeate the rest of the album’s mix which might actually be fortuitous since, in this instance, it specifies that the guitars aren’t massively heightened in the mix and therefore equal efforts have been shared across the band’s performance to render each component of the band their fair time in the spotlight. I can experience and enjoy thoroughly every fleck of grime the riffs throw forth but still appreciate simultaneously the vocals, and their accompanying drums, crashing and flailing, at every given moment. Ultimately the band hit you with astonishing degrees of power, but it is power with a vast number of limiters so applied by the band themselves because they know what an unrestrained guitar presence could do, if left unchecked, upon how the band as a whole is received.
Other than the riffs, the primary force providing the background strength to this record are certainly the drums. They may be somewhat cloaked behind the vocal delivery and riffs, but as you move further within, and become more acclimated to the band’s style and performance, you’ll realise the impact of their drums is everywhere. Rather than rely on the record’s walls to continuously bounce their sound to and fro, the band have utilised the drums in that approach whereby, within the soundscape, the drumming and all the cacophonous reverie they can muster becomes the formative shape by which the record becomes as you listen. There are hardly any blast beats herein and, frankly, the band don’t need them for their production enables the drums to provide whatever patterns are necessary to the songwriting and, more often than not, they’re more than strong enough to envelop the album in a bass-driven, bass-heavy wrapping. The resulting bellowing, crashing spasms these drums infer are gigantic, and knowing we can hear them through the carnage that is the rest of the mix is much appreciated.
Though the band have a strong disposition towards the faster and more furious tempo, employing such pacings throughout their runtime, I’d argue the more memorable sequences occur when the band slow down greatly and really enable us to absorb that momentous gravitas. The band absolutely adore their old school death metal, and nowhere can you hear that more when the band bring their tempo right down yet do not let up on the intensity of their performance . The general riff they play may be much steadier but it’ll be juxtaposed by a secondary guitar going absolutely ballistic on a solo, or employing dive-bombs and whammy bars, crafting an atmosphere that borders the edge of insanity. This is all the more prominent when we recall how powerful their tone is too for even when they decide to slow the pace, the overall strength they impart is hardly wavering. Interestingly, when these sequences are brought to the forefront, the vocals drop away entirely so there’s nothing preventing that bridge between yourself and the utter chaos Festergore are capable of delivering.
In conclusion, this may not be doing anything remotely new that you haven’t experienced before in death metal but for just more half an hour, Festergore rip your head clean off, slam it back upon your neck and send you back off on your way. It’s viciously rampant, loud, brash, unapologetic and they’re just some of the reasons I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent with this record. But though this is straightforward death metal, it’s straightforward death metal written and performed with keen attention as when the band kick things up multiple notches, you certainly feel the performance they’re putting into this record. It manages to switch up its tempo on numerous occasions, and when this is the case, the band employ techniques so your engagement is never waning and their ferocity is forever pushed to the maximum. Festergore are another band who’ve really bought into the idea of concrete dense soundscapes and I’m not complaining; as someone who loves the more crushing, suffocating side of extreme metal this is exactly the kind of death metal I adore. Releasing their first album just a few years following their original formation, I am fascinated and excited to see where these guys go next.
