vote
7.0
- Bands:
SWELLING REPULSION - Duration: 00:29:57
- Available from: 06/07/2024
- Label:
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Transcending Obscurity
Despite the transition from a purely independent context to the stable of a record company perpetually on the move like the Indian Transcending Obscurity Records, the approach and aims of Swelling Repulsion do not change, an international project – divided between the USA and Australia – dedicated to techno -death-thrash metal where everything revolves around the ability to combine aggression and refinement, with songs that alternate moments of sonic aggression with more atmospheric and technically elaborate passages.
Compared to the previous “The Severed Path”, the new “Fatally Misguided” seems to intentionally present itself as something different, putting at the center a more biting and thrashing spirit compared to the more melodic and sometimes sophisticated arias of the debut album, however it remains, at least in the background , a certain ingenuity in the chaining of riffs, from which, as usual, an innate technicality and a certain desire to get involved emerge.
Of course, if compared to the previous repertoire, this is certainly a more aggressive work and, overall, less emotionally characterized, but it can be said that everything always remains within the confines of a technical thrash-death that seems have a lot of so-called old school of the genre at heart. If Extol were once the first reference point to come to mind, listening to the boys’ evolutions, today the primary references appear above all to be the Gorguts of the first two albums, the old Afflicted or, wanting to look at the contemporary panorama, the American Ænigmatum.
The rapid and essential approach, supported by a raw and ‘live’ sound rendering, immediately turns out to be one of the first so-called trademarks of the project, which evidently does not like to get lost in too many turns of words, preferring to concentrate and expose all its ideas in particularly sharp pieces, rarely exceeding three minutes in length. On “The Severed Path”, this marked urgency was often mixed with some brilliant melodic opening, while to find a similar alternation of registers here we have to wait for the final “Sullen Light of Expired Stars”, a rather long track within which the twists instrumentals appear denser and where the riffs and various openings find more space to breathe.
In short, this new chapter marked Swelling Repulsion has more of an impact as a whole than in the individual parts: a record that goes straight for a good part of its duration and which tries to attack the listener, rather than enchant him. In some ways, we could speak of an interlocutory work, but without necessarily diminishing what remains a notable exercise in the re-elaboration of a coherent and well-orchestrated thrash-death sound. A recommended listen to those who adore Gory Blister, Anata and Martyr, as well as the bands mentioned a few lines above.
