By: Mark Ambrose
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: March 23, 2018
Label: Profound Lore Records
It’s a stellar record, one that cuts deep and infects your blood
supply. I suggest you subject yourself
to this trauma and damn the consequences.
“Bestial
Hymns of Perversion”
CD//DD//LP track listing
1. Repulsive Obscurity
2. Resounding from the Depths
3. Lust for Torment
4. Mockery of the Ascension
5. Hymn of Perversion
6. Pious Abnormality
7. Throne of the Serpent
The Review:
There are a few tried and true methods when it
comes to hair-raising metal album intros. Some really solid menacing spoken word,
particularly religious insanity culled from a crackling radio
transmission. The patented horror movie
sample of practically any Mortician song. So when I heard demonic chanting and what can
only be described as the buzz of carrion flies, I knew I was in for some
relentlessly grim death metal. I did not
expect, however, that with “Bestial Hymns
of Perversion”, I’d be wading into a grim, necrotic nightmare that may also
be one of the best releases of the year.
With their second full-length, Of Feather and Bone
have completely reinvented themselves as one of the most devastating death acts
operating today.
Aforementioned opener “Repulsive Obscurity”, after the descent into sonic madness of the
intro, centers on drummer PW’s double-kick assault. This is tribal warfare music, not tech
wizardry – every hit sounds like it’s rattling against bloodied skins,
reverberating through a chasm of evil. The
thick, fuzzy tone of DG’s guitar is pure filth, without ever losing the discernable,
disturbing riffing. AS’s bass is much
more subdued but essential, a clean counter to the buzzing fury of the
six-string assault. Meanwhile, AS and DG
counter guttural death growls with agonized, frayed higher register
shrieks. The combination is particularly
unnerving. Which isn’t to suggest its
pure cacophony – tracks like “Resounding
from the Depths” have an oldschool punky rhythm break that bely the trio’s
earlier hardcore roots.
“Lust for Torment” may
be the standout track for me on a record without a moment of filler. The breakdown, punctuated by cracking snare
work, frenetic fills, and pinch harmonics that will make you scream “fuck!”
while you’re sitting all alone in traffic, is one of the most enervating
musical moments of my year. Plus the
mid-song crescendo is the type of chugging riffing that mosh pits were made
for. The tortured high end vocals of “Mockery of the Ascension” are almost
too distressing after such brutality, but Of Feather and Bone is
not here for your weak bullshit. Instead
the tribal rhythms coalesce again, around a blissfully simple guitar line. The minimal, tremolo lead work is as
effective as any sweep picking, and far more memorable.
“Hymn of Perversion” is
a testament to how aware Of Feather and Bone is
of the power of space – sometimes they allow room to breathe, only to collapse
back in with so much intensity that you may suffocate. And throughout all this chaos, the production
is never muddied, never too busy, always unflinching in capturing the relentless
assaults on display. When PW blisters
his snare with furious blast beats on “Pious
Abnormality”, not one hit is lost – no mean feat when the distortion is so
primal. “Throne of the Serpent” closes as the album began – with sheer,
unmitigated power. DG and AS weave a
sinewy, descending guitar riff that is beyond sinister – it’s downright
malevolent. With tradeoffs between
chugging rhythms and high-end tremolo, slowed down tribal drums and breakneck
blast beats, the closer builds to a nauseating expulsion of raw energy, before
dissipating in another cloud of buzzing flies.
It’s hard to express just how grim and
powerful the whole experience of “Bestial
Hymns of Perversion” is. It stuck to
me like a layer of grime you really need to scour yourself to get off. Even when I felt unburdened from the filthy
tones and punishing rhythms, I had to go back, re-traumatize myself, and
contemplate just what was so unsettling and compelling about the whole
thing. For one, it’s a major departure
from their frenzied, punky debut, “Embrace
the Wretched Flesh”. There’s far
more skill, more despair, more wrathful intensity. But there’s something ineffable about the
primal necromancy these guys dredge up for “Bestial
Hymns…”. It’s a stellar record, one
that cuts deep and infects your blood supply.
I’m likely to keep returning all year, like the scene of an atrocity I
can’t erase from my memory. I suggest
you subject yourself to this trauma and damn the consequences.
“Bestial Hymns of Perversion” is available here
