Death metal comes in many forms, but the cavernous and suffocating variety always intrigues me. Newcomer Aberration fits into this category, and with their self-titled EP they have written incredibly dense and dissonant material that pummels you with walls of sound and twisted riffs that seem to weave in and out of the layers. This shouldn’t be that surprising for a band that has members of Void Rot and Suffering Hour in their ranks, but the approach is just as much on brute force as it is haunting and tense atmosphere. While the songwriting utilizes some familiar elements, there’s already some substance offered beneath the sheer weight and volume of the EP that will draw in fans of the more jagged and dissonant death metal out there.
Aberration builds to extremely dense and powerful instrumentation in a short amount of time, giving you a little less than thirty seconds worth of building noise to prepare yourself before the onslaught of drums and layers of riffing kick in. What you’ll immediately notice is that the sound is as cavernous as it gets, letting the bottom end come through so much that the eerier melodies that are layered over top of it just barely break free. There are some hints of black metal tonality to these leads that the band utilizes, but the core of their sound recalls the same type of weighty and unrelenting death metal that Australian acts like Temple Nightside and Impetuous Ritual have been known for. The noisier, dissonant approach works to Aberration’s advantage as it gives a twisted and suffocating feel to their material, to the point that it blurs together into a weaponized form of music initially and you’ll have to peel back the layers upon repeat listens to make out the nuances. Although the group is consistent in how dense their attack is, I did find that “II” stuck out the most as it slows things down slightly and brings in some interesting drum patterns that give off more of a ritualistic and methodical vibe amongst the blasting. It’s clear that the band has a lot of skill in how precise they can be during the blasting sections as well as how the darker melodies are twisted over the base, but there is still some room for them to further develop their identity and truly break the mold for this type of death metal.
The vocals come in the form of deep growls and higher shrieks that are almost as cavernous as the riffs, and where some bands opt to bury their vocals in the dense layers Aberration has put theirs forward in the mix so the growls only seem to get more intense as the songs progress. What helps to differentiate the material here is how intertwined the two vocalists are, which is demonstrated on each of the tracks. Rather than trading off screams and growls from one passage to the next, they are often used at the same time which only makes for a more nightmarish and twisted soundscape as they swirl around your speakers. For death metal like this the more powerful and abrasive the vocals are the better, and this is an area that Aberration consistently nails from one song to the next.
There’s a lot to unpack in the fourteen minutes that this EP runs for, but those who like their death metal to have dissonant riffs and some true weight behind its instrumentation will find that Aberration has started off strong on their debut. Some of the approach is reminiscent of those that have come before, but the ritualistic drumming and additional black elements set the foundation for the band to twist and transform their ideas even further in the years to come. For now, those that can’t get enough of the utterly abrasive and nightmare inducing death metal will find this a mandatory pick-up, but I suspect the best is yet to come. Aberration is available from Sentient Ruin Laboratories.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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