Slog is back.
The first album of the American duo composed of NT (guitar/bass, Acausal Intrusion, Feral Lord) and Jared Moran (drums/vocals, Acausal Intrusion, Corpse Arise, Draug, Feral Lord, Filtheater, Flittering, Maggot Crown, Occulsed, Uzumaki, Yzordderrex…) comes out in 2021, then Divination is announced for the beginning of 2023 by Morbid and Miserable Records.
Illuminated Expansion, the first track, places ominous ambient sounds before letting a dark melody slowly drive us to an abysmal and heavy sound which keeps piercing leads even when a massive vocal covers the whole. There are also melancholic overtones before the sound slowly fades out, then Synthesis Sequencer will come to roll over us with an aggressive blast, followed by epic leads which fuel the energetic riffs. Again, the sound slows down before giving way to Creeping Flora and its vivid dissonance made of jerky riffs which also know how to slow down to offer heavy parts, but also abrasive harmonics, which creates a continuous wave of darkness which will barely be soothed by the majestic tones of Theurgy Equinox and its warlike march. The track is more focused on Doom sounds while enjoying heady lead parts, but vocals remain cavernous, and it will be the same on Labyrinth Amulet and its choking dissonance. Even the most intense parts are heavy, and the final doesn’t betray this tendency before Bequested Endowment pushes us even more into dark and disturbing slowness populated with scathing harmonics which answer the worked patterns as well as to raw Death roots. Self Value That Utilizes Them returns to melodic leads, but the track keeps its thick, oppressive elements and massive vocal parts that punctuate this long track before Eucharistic Purification, the final song, unveils more vivid and complex leads to trap our mind before letting the rhythmic basis slowly crush us until the final part, which finally releases us.
With its controlled riffs, Slog can either amaze us with majestic leads or crush us with a massive, slow rhythmic beat. Divination exactly knows how to guide us from the album’s beginning to end without a break.
85/100
