Flood Peak is part of the great surprises from the beginning of the year.
Peter Layman (guitar/vocals), Pierre Carbuccia Abbott (bass) and David Fylstra (drums) offer us Fixed Ritual, their first EP.
While looking at the artwork, we do not know what to expect. However, since Urnfield begins, a black and weighing dissonance assaults us. The singer’s howlings only strengthen this sonore onslaught, and we’re caught in the fury. Salve Curator offers us a second fix of this greasy aggressivity wave, where riffs smell blood and howlings call for movements. But the rhythmic calms down on the middle of the song, offering a final part with worrying clean sound. Saturation and rage surface again for Feral Wraiths, letting wrath fall upon us. We find this duality between oppression, quietness, blackness and airy riffs with Way of the Sea, a very intriguing and progressive track, that suddenly explodes before letting pressure relapse. Sectarian Hilt, the last track, takes advantage of its length to fascinate us before striking with this dissonant and heavy rhythmic, coupled to some screams. Then languor and melancholy settle, until this final spurt of violence.
Flood Peak permanently surprises thanks to a duality between dissonant violence and hypnotic quietness. Fixed RItual is a rich EP that becomes more and more interesting each time you listen to it. I need more.
85/100