Thursday, June 2, 2016

Earth Rot - Cthonian Virtues (2016)

Formed by two former members of Advent Sorrow, this four-piece act crafts a sort of chuggy groovy death with some black stuff mixed in. Aside from tremolo riffs, we have a hammering drum performance as well as a vocal front by Jared Bridgeman that switches between hoary grunts and fierce rasps. Earth Rot aren't simply just a bunch of death chug and tremolo riffs though, as Tom Slaughterhouse performs several ripping and memorable solo performances in manners that we just wouldn't expect from an album of this nature. Aside from that, Slaughterhouse also seems determined to not stick to any one single style, which gives us both the thunderous title cut and the blackened “Martyrdom Unsealed” on the same record. Earth Rot are yet another sign that the metal scene in Australia is not to be missed, as they rip and tear through every performance as if their very lives depend on the quality of it. These gentlemen released a full-length back in 2014 of which I don't remember ever remember abusing my eardrums to and I feel rather shameful for that.

There's only fifteen minutes of music here, but it's definitely worth listening to, with my only complaint that it should have been longer. I really hope these Aussies have another full-length planned for us either this year or the next, because I would have been fine with holding off on these four quality pieces (and I do mean quality, the record sounds even better than I can give it justice) until that particular album. I'm not sure what's in the future for Earth Rot, but as far as I've heard, I enjoy them quite a bit more than Advent Sorrow and hope this won't be the last I hear from them. These guys could really become something in the next few years, and with a record like this, I'm sold.

(5 Tracks, 15:00)

9/10

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