Adorior’s output has been infrequent, but each of their albums has left a lasting impact on those that gravitated towards the most extreme ends of black, death, and thrash. Formed back in 1994, their 1998 full length Like Cutting the Sleeping offered a whirlwind of riffs and unhinged vocals courtesy of Jaded Lungs that had some substance underneath the sheer wall of sound. 2005’s Author of Incest built naturally upon its predecessor but following that effort aside from a 2010 split with Terrorama the group would remain silent for some time. It’s taken almost half a decade and some new blood has been injected into Adorior, but it only takes a few minutes in for Bleed On My Teeth to showcase this latest incarnation is just as deadly. Skewing a bit more towards death metal tonality wise, album number three continues to deliver a wild ride of speed and aggression.
Opener “Begrime Judas” gives listeners a good idea of the whiplash inducing riffing and scorching transitions they’re in for over the course of the forty-nine-minute run. After an initial sample of bombs being dropped from a plane the riffs come in fast and furious with equal amounts of speed and intensity. Compared to some of the black metal and black/thrash feel of Adorior’s previous material, the weight and denser tonality on Bleed On My Teeth feels just a bit more death metal centered but the way the riffs fuse together still bring in a little bit of everything black, death, and thrash. Where a lot of groups that have attempted to capture the unhinged and rabid feel of the earliest examples of this type of metal often devolve into repetitive and similar sounding blasts, Adorior continues to differentiate themselves by having some genuine thought put into how the chaos comes together on each song. Riffs come in sharp and fierce, with the leads having the more frenzied and explosive feel that others only reserve for solos, but the transitions from one moment to the next are seamless and the tempos are varied enough to keep things interesting. “LOTP- Vomit Vomit Vomit Bastard” and “Moment of Mania” are great examples of this, as they build from already dense and blistering instrumentals into an almost overwhelming maelstrom that feels like it’s going to collapse inwards, but there are natural pauses that give the vocals a bit more chance to breathe and the sense of destruction to set in. A few of the longer numbers do feel a bit overstretched, especially those that hit the six- and seven-minute mark, but there’s so much here that sticks out over repeat listens that this doesn’t take away from the experience too much. It’s also worth mentioning that the mix/master combination of Greg Chandler and Patrick Engel really make a big difference, as this album is dense and pummeling but there is enough space for the details to come through rather than getting lost in the noise.
There is plenty of substance to the instrumentation on Bleed On My Teeth, but the vocal work from Jaded Lungs is once again an element that sets Adorior apart from some of the others out there. She utilizes a raspier scream that has a lot of venom and grit behind it, but it’s enunciated in a way that makes a lot of the lyrical content easier to make out. On many of the tracks this sharper pitch builds up into a shriek, bringing similar intensity to early black metal and thrash and it really puts the energy level into a whole other level. The mixing gives Jaded Lungs plenty of space to take the spotlight, as her voice hovers slightly above the instrumentation but doesn’t overwhelm it, making this a very balanced listen. Speaking of lyrics, they are appropriately over the top and match the equally unsettling cover art, adding another dimension to Adorior’s already dense material.
It may have been awhile since Adorior last hit listeners with their gritty take on black and death metal, but they’re just as potent on album number three. They’ve made some tweaks to their formula, offering even more scorching guitar work and attacks that shake things up from song to song without ever letting off the gas. A few moments may run a bit long, but specific riffs and lyrics have kept me coming back to this one regularly and it has more depth than your average material of this type. Bleed On My Teeth is available from Dark Descent Records/Sepulchral Voice Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg