Unmerciful delve deeper into darkness.
On their fourth album, Devouring Darkness, released once again on Willowtip Records, Clint Appelhanz (guitar/bass, ex-Origin), Jeremy Turner (guitar/bass, ex-Origin) and Trynt Kelly (drums, Marasmus) introduce their new singer, Josh Riley (Kohnerah).
Miracle in Fire kicks things off with an assertive brutality, a very fast, thick composition that lets the musicians add more complex touches, while Josh shows us that he’s really the man for the job with his powerful and varied vociferations. Nothing seems to be able to stop the rhythm, which eventually gives way to Unnatural Ferocity, where jerky patterns are used to accentuate the intensity of the riffs and the blast, but there are also moments when a crushing groove is allowed, before Malice Unbound reveals its Old School roots. If the track slows down, it’s only to pick up again, leading us through the violence to Devouring Darkness, a long eponymous composition where dissonance first hits us, tainting its identity and riffs to the core. The final solo leads into Relentless Malevolence, which gets back to the basics of rage, with a jerky riffing worthy of the greats and a devastating strike force, but also this pachydermic break that doesn’t leave me indifferent. The band decides to take a look back at its past, by covering Vomit You Out, a composition by Origin (a band to which two members belonged) released on the eponymous album, and which corresponds exactly to Unmerciful‘s musical identity. Double kick remains on its own to pave the way for Infernal Conquering, where the musicians unsurprisingly stick to their fat, uncompromising approach, multiplying cavernous howls with a few piercing harmonic blasts. The pace picks up for The Reaping, while retaining the previous elements and adding jerky, pounding passages, and then we approach the end of the album with Voracious Lunacy, which in turn tramples us mercilessly. Vengence Transcending brings the opus to a close with a thick rhythmic beat that’s all the more reason to shake your head rhythmically and satisfy your desire for violence.
The vocal handover is seamless with Devouring Darkness, which is perfectly in line with Unmerciful‘s albums. Pure brutality sprinkled with a heavy touch of technicality, that’s everything we love!
90/100