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Austrian metal band Mastic Scum formed back in 1992, and like many of the others from that early 90s period would focus on smaller releases like demos and splits before finally unleashing a full length in 1999. Early on the band fell somewhere between death metal and grindcore, but in more recent times they have taken on a death metal meets industrial metal approach with some grind remaining for good measure. Some time has passed since the last time they put out material, as their last full-length C T R L came out in 2013 and EP Defy came out in 2017, but 2022 marks the end of that silence in the form of Icon. Offering up ten songs of groove-laden death metal and bursts of grind with a heavy industrial foundation, it’s a welcome return that is sure to help Mastic Scum gain some new fans who haven’t come across them before.
Opening track “Digital Dementia” makes it clear that Mastic Scum is still capable of bludgeoning listeners with dense and heavy tonality while moving between slow, deliberate grooves and faster blasting. Their sound instantly has some familiarity to it, yet the combination of these low-tuned grooves and chugs with the industrial edge of the drums is an approach that isn’t nearly as common these days as it was around the turn of the century and the band makes it their own throughout Icon. The best way I can think to describe it is as the slower sections of a Vader or Deicide album crossed with a heavy dose of Fear Factory, some early to mid-2000s groove metal and deathgrind. It’s a potent combination that has a very modern sound while still feeling rooted in that old-school approach, and when the industrial elements are upped further on songs like “Virtual Irreality 3.0” and “Create and Destroy” Mastic Scum creates an appropriately dystopian soundscape that’s appealing. At just over thirty-nine minutes it’s a very digestible album that hits hard and doesn’t have too many passages that overstay their welcome, though I did find that the way the songwriting built up many of these grooves led to individual songs blurring together over repeat listens. There are moments on Icon that shake things up, particularly the final song “Retribution” which lets the brute force fade away for a few minutes in favor of some darker and creepier ambiance. The tightness of the performance and sheer force of Icon has led me to return to it often, but I did find myself wanting just a few more deviations to the formula that would’ve made specific tracks have additional staying power outside of the album in its entirety.
Current vocalist Maggo Wenzel has been with Mastic Scum since 2008, though according to Metal Archives it looks like he fronted the band on a split as far back as 1997. Wenzel’s pitch skews towards the guttural and brutal side of the spectrum with moves into more industrial metal style yelling/screaming. It’s a mix that’s well suited to what the band is doing on this album, as sometimes there are sections that feel straight up brutal death metal while others feel like the more extreme parts of Fear Factory. The vocals seem to tower above the instrumentation in a way that gives a commanding and sometimes inhuman presence, adding to the dystopian and sci-fi sheen that Icon is going for. Certain points find the vocals transition into some cleaner ranges that give off a bit more Machine Head or other groove metal, which may be a bit hit or miss for some listeners, but I felt they worked well and gave Mastic Scum a bit more variety.
Mastic Scum has returned with an album that hits hard and delivers bone crunching grooves alongside a sci-fi and dystopian atmosphere. Despite their thirty-year run as a band I hadn’t come across them before and it was interesting to see how their earlier deathgrind days have transformed into this death metal meets industrial fusion that still has occasional dips into grind moments. While the individual tracks do run together and keep this from being something I’ll remember the details of months and even years from now, it is well put together and is a good album to run through in its entirety. Considering that this sound isn’t nearly as common now as it was a decade or two ago, there’s still plenty here that has intrigued me and I’m sure quite a few of you will feel the same. Icon is available from MDD Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg