No one expected Bent Sea to return.
Formed in 2011 by Dirk Verbeuren (drums/guitar, Megadeth, Cadaver, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, ex-Aborted, ex-Scarve, ex-Soilwork…), the band recruited Sven de Caluwé (vocals, Aborted, Coffin Feeder, Fetal Blood Eagle) and then Shane Embury (bass, Venomous Concept, Brujeria, Napalm Death, Lock Up…) who replaced Devin Townsend (bass, ex-Strapping Young Lad) and began creating. One EP and three split albums later, silence reigned, then a new EP was released during the crisis of 2020, and the idea germinated once again in the minds of the musicians, who five years later offered us their first album, The Dormant Ruin.
We’re in for a good half hour, or twenty tracks, of that violent and unstructured style called grindcore that we love so much, and that the band has mastered to ravage our eardrums in proper fashion. Jerking rhythms, Sven‘s characteristic screams and roars, but above all a good dose of dissonance are at work, and nothing seems to be able to stop the wild madness of the musicians, who string together riffs at an intense pace, allowing themselves a few quieter passages that are quite disturbing. The tracks follow one another and sound alike, but we were warned, and we love this violent fury that literally beats our brains in turn, incorporating piercing leads, sometimes calling on Sylvain Coudret (Soilwork, ex-Scarve) and John Cooke (Corrupt Moral Altar, Venomous Concept, live for Napalm Death…) to the rescue. The band ventures a little into Sludge, notably on Curtailer Of Conceit and its slow passages, or on My Fall, which welcomes Kevin Sharp (Lock Up, Venomous Concept, ex-Brutal Truth) for a much heavier composition, but fear not: frenzy quickly returns.
With Bent Sea, every track on The Dormant Ruin is dedicated to pure violence, mainly the kind that tears at our ears because it’s so sharp, but sometimes a little heavier or more dissonant. Unfortunately, it’s likely that we’ll never be able to experience this live.
80/100
