Nekus "Death Apophenia"

    Emerging once again from the dark subterranean depths of the German underworld, Nekus returns with an utterly monstrous sounding sophomore release titled, “Death Apophenia.” These shadowy death doom musicians conjure up some cataclysmic sounding tracks drenched in copious amounts of punishing reverb and ear shattering distortion on this new album. 

    After first hearing their debut album, ““Sepulchral Divination,” which Sentient Ruin released last year, I knew this band still had more to offer the extreme metal world. There is no denying this band’s monolithic death doom sound, which allows them to come up with extremely suffocating arrangements. Compared to some of the other current death doom acts that have left me underwhelmed after hearing the same riff structure repeated over and over again without much thought, I find Nekus constructs these surrealistic and profoundly haunting arrangements which takes you into the horrifying depths of a nightmarish musical realm. A their core, Nekus is an act that does not mess around, and you can hear in their songs a band reaching into the darkest depths of their fiendish artistic minds to craft some inhumanly brutal sounding music.   

    As with most death doom bands, Nekus does not write short two to three minute songs, but at the same time the band does not try to test the listener’s patience by cranking out twenty minute slabs of lackluster material. I think the songs actually flow together perfectly, and that is what makes this album a solid listen from start to finish. The opening track instantly captures your attention with the sounds of ritualistic drumming slow building-up to a malevolent riff accompanied by some gruesome vocals. “Cadaverous Periphery,” is a very dynamic piece of music and shows how Nekus can transition from a slow bone crushing style of extreme metal to a more thunderous sounding onslaught without sounding disorganized. I would say that the music is well procured and whoever did the recording for this album perfectly amplifies the band’s monstrous vision. On the track, “Noxious Furor,” I thought the band hammered out some unfathomably fearsome riffs, and the vocal parts added to the vile atmosphere which sort of evokes a primordial feel at times. 

    Songs like “Accursed Murmur” and “Unutterable Prophecies,” descend further down into the caverns of unspeakable madness and continue to send these deafening shockwaves through the speakers. The drummer compliments the brutal tribalistic energy by coming up with mesmerizing rhythms from behind the kit. During the the end of "Accursed Murmur" the drums echo over the other instruments like thousands of boulders crashing down during an rockslide. On the final song, “Erichthea,” the band once again traverses across these bombastic death doom musical  landscapes, but I would argue that Nekus comes up with even more profoundly loud spellbinding arrangements to conclude an album already full of constant aural punishment.  

    Although Nekus may not be baffling listeners with whacky technical arrangements, dressing up in clown suits and singing about aliens running a solar farm, I would argue that the atmospheres and arrangement featured on their sophomore release are unfathomably profound. “Death Apophenia," is a truly hellish offering in terms of unapologetic and sadistic sounding brutality. In the end, Nekus has proven to be yet another insanely creative extreme metal artist to be a part of the Sentient Ruin family, and I hope they continue to record more insidiously heavy death doom releases in the future. 

Check out the song "Accursed Murmur" below:

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp (Album comes out November 15th, 2024) :

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/

Interview with the Label Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Back in 2014, not too long after I started running this blog, I received a comment on an article from someone who said that they ran an independent metal/punk label and that they were looking to see if they could send me promos for possible review. Years later I can tell you that I am still receiving promos from Sentient Ruin and I have discovered a massive amount of abhorrent and inhumanly brutal artists thanks to the label. In my many years of doing album reviews for this blog along with my time writing for other online publications, I have never come across a label that puts so much time and effort into promoting their artists. Not only do the albums sound amazing, but the vinyls and cassettes always look 100% professional. This is not just some label that will take your album, wrap it up in a garbage bag, and then completely rip you off by not promoting the album. When I receive a promo from Sentient Ruin I am instantly hooked by the description of the band, as well as the overall knowledge that the owner has for extreme metal music. After years of covering Sentient Ruin bands, I decided that the time had come to interview the owner of this merciless underground extreme music label from the Bay Area. So here it is everyone, an interview with the owner of Sentient Ruin...

Hello, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. After all these years of covering bands released through Sentient Ruin I really wanted to give the readers more insight into the label and discuss some of the really decimating releases that you have in the works coming out this year. To begin, what was your original plan when you started Sentient Ruin and what were some of your early goals when the label first began?

Thanks to you for the interest. I've been a music fan/collector/musician/consumer for most of my life, at a serious level even since before adolescence. Later I became very interested in underground punk/metal via bands like Napalm Death, Godflesh, Voivod, Killing Joke, etc. At the same time I began to follow closely at first labels like Earache and Relapse, and then more underground labels like Aurora Borealis, Cold Meat Industries, Cold Spring, Osmose, HydreaHead, Nuclear War Now, etc. I observed the packaging and arworks/layouts of records I would buy closely, and always elaborated on what I would have done better or different. Around the mid 00s I began to think more seriously of all I would do and the kinds of bands I'd release if I had a label and the thought never left my head.

Over the years Sentient Ruin has worked with a plethora of underground extreme music artists from all around the globe and that is what I find makes the label really stand out. How would you compare Sentient Ruin to other extreme music labels? What do you feel has contributed to the labels success when pertaining to establishing a strong and loyal following?

I've always been inspired by things, but I never really cared for imitating anyone. As I said previously, admiration and respect for many labels would make me think that I too wanted to start a label, but more as in how I would do it differently, if I had a label. I don't know if Sentient Ruin qualifies as "successful", but I try to release stuff that I like. Stuff that I would buy as well as a simple music fan. Since I like anything from goth to post-punk, to noise rock and hardcore punk to dark ambient and avantagarde all the way to harsh noise and bestial metal, you can likely see all this stuff coming out on the label and everything in between. I think SR somewhat sits in its own corner for that: we just don't stick to any genre, which could make the label seem aimless and chaotic, yet all the bands have a visible connecting thread: darkness.

Something I’ve noticed when reviewing bands from Sentient Ruin is that the albums from top to bottom are typically extremely well produced. Very few Sentient Ruin artists record an album to where there are only a couple good tracks and then the rest are filler. Who are some of the artists you have really enjoyed working over the years? What are some of your favorite releases that you have put out?

I think like any or most labels I just try to release stuff that is good, that is strong, feels complete and that gives the listener a full satisfying experience and not just a listen. Something worth their money, time, and which they can chew on and spend time with. Perhaps it's for this reason you feel the records are good back to back. I am indeed not a huge fan of lo-fi music in general, aside from some very sparse exceptions, and I tend to avoid splits, 7"s, EPs etc in favor of full-lengths which give a more exhaustive experience. I like recordings that sound full, dense and overbearing. I am happy you think that because that's what we're (hopefully) striving for. I enjoy working with all our bands, picking favorites is very hard. I'll say to anyone discovering SR for the first time could check out Rotting Sky's "Sedation", Pseudocommando's "A Home Beneath the Floodboards", Cryptae's "Nightmare Traversal", or DSKNT's "Vacuum Gamma Noise Transition" if you wanna know what this label is about.

Besides running the label you are also very much involved in creating music and have been involved in numerous bands/extreme metal projects. I wanted to know how long you have been playing in bands and what influenced you when you were growing up?

Been in bands non stop since the mid 00s. Just as I'd collect and buy records, I'd also go to as many shows as I could. Just as buying records made me think how it would be cool to release them myself one day, seeing bands on stage made think it would also be cool to be on the stage one day.

One of my favorite bands that has released albums through Sentient Ruin is Abstracter. I actually reviewed the band’s first album, “Tomb of Feathers,” for another music website when I was first starting out doing reviews and articles. I was wondering if you could talk about the band's most recent release, “Abominion.” I feel as though it was one of the most profound releases to come out last year in my opinion and I was impressed by the work you did with the different vinyl variants. How do you feel about that album when comparing it to previous Abstracter releases? Also, what inspired you to create some of the variants for the vinyl such as the limited edition “radioactive” vinyl, which I definitely made sure to order?

The album sounded so massive it sounded like it needed something equally grandiose for the packaging. The band put such work in recording it that I felt like complementing that with equally ambitious and enveloping packaging. The album is Abstracter's best and it shows a band that is constantly growing and exploring and pushing to not repeat themselves. The lyrics and concept paired with the monumental music create a dense and enveloping experience, so we all agreed it should also be given appropriate visual expression to complete the opera and close the concept circle. It all came naturally. We did the glow in the dark variant because the band on this album touches the concept of nuclear energy, and also to stimulate people to listen to it in the dark. The purple/red variant was done as a symbolism for blood and pollution and also cause it just married the black and white artwork nicely.

2020 was sure a challenging and frustrating year for a lot of people, but I wanted to commend you for being sort of an inspiring entity during that whole year, especially when dealing with a global pandemic. Even with everything going on during that year, you released a ton of great releases from so many bands like Diabolic Oath, Dearth, Deadlight Sanctuary, 6th Circle and Ceremonial Bloodbath. What albums stood out to you during that year and what were some of the challenges you faced as a business dealing with the global pandemic? 

The ones you mentioned are good example stand outs. The main challenge was vinyl turnaround times becoming dismal and prices rising for basically everything. And things are fucking FAR from back to normal. They are actually the furthest from normal now than they were in 2020.... So I will say this now to anyone reading: support the underground now more than ever, because we're all struggling and scraping by right now.

Over the years what have been some challenges you have faced when running the label? Have you had to deal with difficult artists, or do you have strong relationships with most of the bands you work with, and if so what would you attribute to the strong bonds you share with the artists on the label?

Thankfully I have a wonderful relationship with all my bands. Something I feel very lucky about and which really means a lot to me. I consider every one of them friends. Challenges are many and the more the label grows and has to maintain and lose, the more the challenges. Some main challenges over the years have been: distributing our stuff well globally, keeping releases affordable to everyone while putting a lot of work and quality in them and not cutting corners, finding a way to find the time and energies, and just staying motivated and focused in something that can be very stressful and tiring.

There is another band I thought I should talk about given the band’s well deserved continued success and recognition amongst the metal community in recent years. Necrot, an undeniably fearsome Bay Area death metal trio, has worked with Sentient Ruin in the past on cassette releases for some of their albums. Actually, “Labyrinth” was an album I covered for the blog when you were releasing the cassette version back in 2016. What has it been like working with the band on those cassette releases? Do you have a favorite Necrot album?

Necrot are an awesome band. I've known those guys from far before the label existed. I was a roomate with Luca a long time and we probably just worked on stuff together for fun cause we know each other so well. We're all friends and that's what got us collaborating on stuff. Members have their own label now and they work with bigger labels for their releases because after years of hard work and ass kicking music they've gotten to a place where they just need and deserve more infrastructure and visibility. I'm very happy I got to be a part of their music in the earlier days and proud of them for where they have gotten. I was a fan then and I am a fan now, and always will be one. They are probably the one band I have seen more times play live in my life and I still try to see them play live whenever I can. 

Looking ahead, 2022 is already shaping up to be another crushing year for the label with some utterly devastating releases coming out. For example, the new Black Fucking Cancer album, which might be one of the sickest looking vinyl formats I have ever seen in my life. What releases are you most excited for this year? Would you say that 2022 will see more new Sentient Ruin releases compared to previous years, or about the same?

I don't' think there will be more because we already release the max we humanly can. The BFC one is certainly a highlight, as well as the debut Exaltation album, the new Golgothan Remains album, new Assumption, debut Anticreation album, debut Ash Prison, debut Vile Ritual and something from Uranium that will ruin people's lives.

I do not know if you are aware of this, but you hold the record currently for the most wins in the Label of the Year category for my yearly award special I do for the blog. The reason is that every year you seem to be the one label that I find releases some of the most outstanding extreme metal artists. What advice would you give young independent label owners who are just starting out? Do think independent extreme music labels have more opportunities now to grow as diehard fans continue to want physical formats like vinyl?

Didn't know this, that's awesome. To anyone starting I say: this is a painful life choice. So you have to be ok with a lot of time alone, a lot of work, a lot of repetitive, tedious work, a lot of financial rollercoasters. I also suggest not chasing trends or caring for that stuff because someone else already monopolizes those. Those are one of those things that are the first to be capitalized on by others. I actually suggest just doing things differently, as basic as that sounds. While I would never discourage anyone from starting a label, I don't think it's something for everyone, there is a degree of masochism going into it which very few people can find enjoyable. There are also obvious temporal and context challenges to face right now. Bandcamp and the rise of laptops and home recording have created an insane influx of bands and of people releasing music or looking for labels, and for this reason a lot of the music out there creates an anesthetizing feeling of conformation and uniformity and of everything sounding already done and heard before, and in massive quantities where it becomes kind of cumbersome to pick which bands and releases to work with.

Well, I just want to say thank you again for doing this interview. I really appreciate all the work you do to promote extreme metal music. I’ve been introduced to a significant amount of bands over the years now thanks to Sentient Ruin and I look forward to hearing more hellacious releases from the label!

Cheers!    

Sentient Ruin Website:

http://sentientruin.com/ 

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/

Sentient Ruin Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SentientRuin

Karcavul "Intersaone"

    Hailing from the unforgiving darkness somewhere in Lyon, France, Karcavul digs deep into the sludgy nightmarish depths of society and unearths a tomb of relentless extreme music. While listening to this three song release called, "Intersaone," I found myself lost in the music and overcome by this frozen feeling of terror and enjoyment. 

     Karcavul is not an easy group to categorize, which I think plays to their advantage when making music. I hear sludge metal along with some old school death metal and even black metal elements. The band’s tone and presentation at times reminded me of Noothgrush and Eyehategod where the music could serve as the theme song for the fall of humanity. Still, compared to the two groups I just mentioned, Karcavul is very diverse sounding on this release. 

     No matter how you want to describe them, the atmosphere created by the band when recording these three songs fringes on the edge of human sanity. The opening track, “Mangepierres,” is quite bizarre with these inhuman noises in the background and then some guy comes in speaking calmly in French. Once the audio clips fade out the band starts pounding away at a blackened riff that eventually slows down for a thick sludgy part. As the drums feverishly smash at the cymbals the guitar creates a haunting landscape. The vocals really capture the song’s tone by crying out in agony over the harsh noise. 

    The band displays some dynamic songwriting skills and the second track, “Illuminashichs,” definitely starts out more sludgy and creates this fear in the back of the mind as if something wicked is coming towards you in slow motion. The band sort of returns to the more quickened paced black and death metal approach, but towards the end fades out with a doom like riff section. How do you make this type of music more distributing? Add the sounds of children screaming in complete terror as the guitar pounds away creating powerful waves of distortion. I think the final song, “Crackleurres,” perfectly closed the books on this horrific musical journey. Once again the band tears through heavy sounding riffs that range from sludge to death and builds a gruesome atmosphere. 

    In the end, Karcavul is following in the footsteps of all those other extreme bands who write music that crosses over into the bleak and sinister side of the human mind. Their musicianship was rather solid and I think my only complaint is that the vocals could have been recorded louder at times. Other than that, this is an album that I strongly recommend for fans of extreme and haunting music. Actually, I want to see Karcavul’s music played at a high school dance...the looks of fear on those students’ faces would be priceless...

Karcavul "Illuminashichs" :

Sewercide "Immortalized in Suffering"

    Venomous snakes and man-eating saltwater crocodiles, are just a couple things that make Australia one brutal place to live. Adding to the brutality is the Melbourne based death metal band, Sewercide. You want a shot of kick ass adrenaline pumping old school death metal? Well, their debut full-length release, “Immortalized in Suffering,” is definitely the answer. 

    Teaming up with Unspeakable Axe Records, Sewercide perfectly compliments the label’s desire to be one of metal’s most extreme and solid independent labels around. The band has been active since 2011 and it seems after putting out a fair amount of demos and splits, the group is ready to introduce listeners to a full-length album that destroys from top to bottom. Their style of death metal falls into the old school worship category and I hear strong Morbid Angel influence along with Hate Eternal, Deicide and Pestilence. If anything, they play it safe and stick to face smashing death metal and leave all that progressive stuff to the bands who want to peruse that path of extreme music making. Honestly, I do enjoy their consistency, but I would say that Sewercide is not trying to rearrange the death metal formula. Is that good, is that bad...who cares, their riffs are aggressive and the vocals sound as if they were recorded in the tombs of cursed warlords. 

    Kicking the album off is the track, “For Those About to Rot.” The band lays down a vicious riff that features wicked palm muted chord progressions, while the double bass smashing rhythm from their drummer crushes across the musical landscape. I also really dig the gruesome old school death metal vocals that in my opinion captures the classic Florida death metal sound. “A Dying Dream,” is the album’s second track and maintains the brutal sound that you heard on the first track. They even throw in this short bluesy sounding riff that sounds like the footsteps of Cthulhu walking towards a town that will shortly be leveled to the ground. Track three, “Snares of Carnality,” features more slamming guitar parts and the instrumental arrangements sound well thought out. 

    There are some bands I have reviewed that seriously need to stop trying to play fast and focus on coming up with solid sections that can transition without sounding like a gigantic ball chaotic distortion. Sewercide’s level of musicianship and their solid songwriting abilities will really attract listeners who are tired of hearing piss pour death metal recordings. Some other good tracks I want to mention are “Interlude in Agony,” “Megalithic Tomb,” and “Eternal (In Spirit). “Interlude in Agony,” is just a creepy short piano piece that serves as an intermission before listeners are given more brutal cuts of old school. Probably my favorite song on the album, “Megalithic Tomb,” just annihilates with sheer unapologetic force. 

   When all is said and done and Sewercide is all out extreme riffs, you can’t deny their passion for making old school style death metal music. I think there is still more for them to offer and I believe they are on the right path. Also, I would not want to hear them become too experimental and think their old school worship style is rather enjoyable. All they need to do is just keep consistently pumping out monumental sounding tracks of brutality and the headbanging maniacs shall be drawn to their music like crocodiles to raw meat. 

Check out this song by Sewercide "Snares of Carnality":

Sewercide Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/Sewercide

Nucleus "Sentient"

    Unspeakable Axe Records unleashes upon the metal community yet another solid extreme band, this time taking science fiction themed lyrics and monumental sounding death metal compositions into more extreme directions. Nucleus, based out of Chicago, disintegrates listener’s speakers with their debut full-length release, “Sentient.” 

    I can honestly say that once the first riff began, I had this premonition that some brutal force was coming my way. Nucleus summons the bombastic sounding aggression from old school death metal bands, but adds their own noticeable distinct stamp of ass kicking music. They really do a solid job crafting their own sound, which helps separate them from those generic sounding old school extreme metal copycats. To think of it, most of the bands I have reviewed on Unspeakable Axe Records tend to be very talented and incorporate a variety of extreme influences into their music, while expressing their own original ideas. 

    The songwriter is very consistent and as I noted earlier, I just felt like this group was going to deliver some massive and brutal sounding death metal tunes. Following the opening instrumental piece called, “Sentience,” song number two, “Dosadi,” gets the adrenaline pumping with a mean sounding riff. I swear, you just want to break everything in your path as the singer growls over the slamming instrumental parts. For the next song, “Cantos,” the band perfectly transitioned into a crushing tsunami of old school death metal worshipping horror. Every instrument is record at such a precise level that one can really appreciate the musicianship that this band put into the track. Plus, I think it is important to point out how Nucleus does not overwhelm listeners with technicality by seeing how fast they can play. Songs like, “Cube,” and, “Insurgent,” are well crafted tracks that do not need all that extra technical skill to get the band’s point across. Each musician is able to contribute their talents equally, and I don’t think one player solely steals the show. 

    Overall, they are a well rounded group of musicians that can offer such powerful pieces like, “Ancient.” To think it, I think Ancient was my favorite track on the entire album. Every riff, drum part and lyric, paint this sinister sounding world that makes for one unforgiving death metal song. The final track, “Starflyer,” was a close second favorite and forcefully shuts the lid on this extreme ride through brutal and tormented musical landscapes. 

    From top to bottom, there is not a dual or simplistic moment on, “Sentient.” Nucleus throws down deafening sounds of extreme music to show people that there is no settling for something boring and basic when offering brutality. Highly worth checking out if you are a fan of pure kick ass death metal...and happen to be drawn to any band that has album artwork done by Dan Seagrave. I swear, his artwork compliments the music every time...Any band with a Dan Seagrave album cover is certified brutal in my book. 

Check out their song "Cube" below:

Nucleus Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/nucleusmetal

Unspeakable Axe Records Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/unspeakableaxerecords

Necroskin "Before Chaos Takes You"

    I don’t know what it is about the Palermo extreme music scene, but there have been some solid acts to come out in the last few years. Adding to the list is Necroskin, a brutal death metal band with an unapologetic musical attitude. Taking from old school influences and just unleashing devastation upon the world of metal, the group has put together an appropriately titled release, “Before Chaos Takes You.” 

     The group formed around March of last year and this release is the first official offering that can be heard by the metal listeners from across the globe. Consisting of Gabriele Mazzola (vocalist), Diego Gore Zimmardi (guitarist), Andrea Conti (bassist), Valerio Sandman (drummer), the group uses their musical talents and enjoyment of death metal to create some vicious sounding recordings. Necroskin all around is able to capture the brutality of bands such as Hate Eternal and Suffocation, while incorporating some extreme technicality. You truly get this solid balance of heaviness and technique, which is important for them to continue as they write more music. 

    The demo starts out with the guitarist skillfully picking through different guitar chords. This very soothing piece is shortly annihilated by a sinister growl to begin the next track, “Universal Implosion.” The guitars come in and lay down a mean sounding riff that has a wicked groove and develops into a blitzkrieg of trem picking. The drumming adds extra force to the bombastic musical landscape with a raw recording quality. I felt like the guitar solo could have been captured a bit better, or the guitarist could have experimented more with different effects pedals. However, the solo itself definitely added something extra to the song and played an important part in the overall piece. 

    Necroskin cleverly incorporated a variety of tempos and riff structures into their songs on this release. I was really taken back by the slow sludgy riff on “Three is the Perfect Death.” The bass and guitar were unfathomably brutal. Track 4, “Family Remains,” in my opinion took on some more grindcore elements and the vocal style Gabriele used had a black metal quality to it at times which I felt complimented the intense instrumental compositions. The following song, “Open Yourself for Chaos,” turned out to be the band’s vicious musical statement and showed their potential as creators of unforgiving extreme music. Next song, “237 (redrum)," starts out with an audio clip from the movie, “The Shining.” After the audio clip, the band hammers out a gory sounding riff that is more extreme than that scene from “The Shining” where the blood is flowing down the hotel halls. 

     For the band’s first release that they self-recorded, I was quite impressed with what Necroskin had to offer up. Their passion for extreme music can be heard on each song and hopefully they keep moving forward by writing more gruesome pieces of death metal music. From the unholy sounding riffs, the rapid drumming and then of course the earsplitting growls, open yourself to chaos and check out Necroskin! 

Necroskin Facebook Page: 

https://www.facebook.com/necroskin/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Atrament "Eternal Downfall"

    Out of the extreme darkness that lurks in the shadows of Oakland, CA comes a crusty blackened group with plenty of unforgiving music to offer listeners. Atrament is a band that may at first present a very straightforward extreme sound on their debut album, “Eternal Downfall,” but if you listen long enough you can hear some diverse sounding agony and aggression. 

    With a d-beat combine harvester like style that grinds feverishly away at thunderous compositions and vocals that unleash growls of blackened death terror, the band takes listeners into a world of endless chaos. From the album’s open song, “No Beyond,” I felt consumed by an unforgiving presence that was perfectly captured in the album’s recording quality. Atrament digs deep in the extreme earth to exhume a vicious style of music and the songs on this album maintain a consistent mentality. Once you start, there is no stop to the instrumental onslaught. 

    Following the opening song, I really became interested in the group’s mix of crust and blackened death. Their vocalist is unbelievable with his growls and the recording of his vocals allows listeners to vividly hear his talents. Also, the guitar riffs are simply brutal... Just imagine an axe wielding demon hacking away at corpses and that is how I would describe the guitar sound on this album. Each distorted riff compliments the band’s overall aggressive nature and the attitude that comes from the guitar playing makes the music demand attention. Tracks such as “Aberration” and “Consumed” display a tight sounding band that is almost trying to narrate the end of the world by writing this type of sinister sounding music. 

    Another area of the album that in a way solidifies the overall sound is the rhythm section. For a band that is trying to convey such an extreme sounding message, they need that solid backbone from their drummer and bass player. I would say that Atrament’s drummer and bass player perform at a top notch level and do their best to keep that hellish adrenaline pumping style moving ahead. “Hericide” is one track that I think captures the solid sound that originates from the band’s rhythmic backbone. 

    Overall, the band just pounds away with no regret and no remorse to really break the silence by offering such extreme sounding tracks. I will be honest, some tracks start to sound a bit repetitive and that happens with a group that is writing music in a style that has countless other types who write in a similar vein. However, there are tracks on this album that in my opinion are at the top level of crust and blackened extreme music. Following the track, “Rotting Twilight,” I felt the band closed out the album with some brilliant ideas that if you listened to carefully, contained a vast amount of unique creativity. The last song, “Dusk Abuse,” is a cinematic mind altering guitar driven piece that wraps up the whole intense musical journey in a way that words can not describe and can only be felt when listening. 

    I think it is great to see another Bay Area extreme band put out a powerful release that hits at the core of extreme musical expression. Atrament joins the ranks with their debut album, “Eternal Downfall,” alongside many other top acts from the region. Hope to hear more from these dudes in the future! Hopefully mankind is still around...

Band Facebook Page: 

https://www.facebook.com/blackatrament/

Atrament Live: