Texas band Tribal Gaze is back with a vengeance!
Recently signed to Nuclear Blast Records, McKenna Holland (vocals), Quintin Stauts (guitar), Ian Kilmer (guitar), Zachary Denton (bass), and Cesar De Los Santos (drums) unveil their second album, Inveighing Brilliance.
The album kicks off at full speed with Smiling From Their Chariots, a short opening track with a clear message: the band plays uncompromising Death Letal with an abrasive mix that allows them to play fast but also very slowly. The massive vocals are also present, as on Beyond Recognition, which starts off fairly slowly but suddenly explodes thanks to frenzied drums and hardcore influences that come to the fore in the screaming choruses. The song is quite jerky but has some very catchy parts, which can also be found on Emptying the Nest, with its vindictive Old School roots that give the riffs a very raw energy that is perfect for the stage. The rhythm section stands out quite well on this track, but it suddenly accelerates with Guarding the Illusion and its unifying simplicity, which lets the drums lead the assault while maintaining a certain heady groove as the vocalist roars. We continue with To the Spoils of Flesh, which maintains a similar dynamic with a series of mosh parts and overlapping screams, then with Ruling in a Land with No God, which returns to a lively base conducive to the crowd movements so appreciated by musicians when they play in front of an audience. A few piercing harmonics also appear from time to time, but the song is very fast, as is The Irreversible Sequence, which follows suit and returns to the raw fury that makes us bang our heads frantically. There is a short break with Inveighing Brilliance, the eponymous track that serves more as a noisy interlude than anything else, then the band resurfaces again with Draped in Piercing Radiance and its rhythm that will come as a real slap in the face to anyone who isn’t expecting it, then the vocalist resumes his duties, shouting at us as usual. The long Lord of Blasphemy unfortunately marks the end of the album, starting with an effective rhythm, then new changes of pace to go with the jerky and explosive approach, then gradually fading into silence towards the middle of the song, pausing, then letting the drummer take over for the last three minutes.
Tribal Gaze is part of this new wave of angry Death Metal bands with a sound between Old School and Hardcore touches that makes you want to punch everything that moves. For this activity, Inveighing Brilliance will be the ideal soundtrack!
90/100
