Here comes Mutagenic Host‘s violent debut in 2025.
For this debut album, entitled The Diseased Machine, Jack Thompson (guitar), George Kinsella-Pearn (drums), Ash Moore (vocals), Dan Bulford (guitar) and E. Swales (bass) collaborate with Dry Cough Records, Gurgling Gore and Memento Mori for the physical versions.
We start with the extraterrestrial sample of Neurological Necrosis, which serves as an introduction to a brutal old-school violence that doesn’t shy away from speeding up and welcoming backing vocals in addition to the virulent vocal parts. The riffs develop the dissonant side during the slow moments, then it’s with a jerky approach that they develop Genestealer, creating explosive passages linked by cutting harmonics and raw vociferations. A strange finale leads us to The Twisted Helix, where slowness at first seems to dictate the pace, but the rhythm quickly evolves and gives rise to furious eruptions between two catchy passages, but the band segues without delay into Artificial Harvest of the Obscene, a relatively similar composition where moments of violence disrupt the steady march. We move on to the energetic Organometallic Assimilation, which remains anchored in macabre tones and regular bursts of rage to dictate its rhythm, then the band lets us breathe with DIRECTIVE__ [kill_on_sight], an interlude made of samples that seems to warn us before a machine assassination. Riffs return with Incomprehensible Methods of Slaughter, which develops sometimes more complex touches to accompany an already thick base, then it’s with S.W.A.R.M. (Systematic War Against Restless Machines) that the assault continues, adding ever more lively, driving passages to its bellicose rhythm. Promethean Dusk continues with this hard-worked approach, but the band also delivers a nasty moshpart that makes you want to punch your neighbor in the mouth before the finale that leads to Rivers of Grief, the final composition, which takes on an air of Progressive Death with its modern introductory sample and its choice to remain instrumental before the luminous release.
Rooted in Old School Death but not averse to integrating more complex and futuristic parts, Mutagenic Host goes to war with riffs against superintelligence on The Diseased Machine. No word on whether they’ll run into Sarah Connor…
80/100