The death metal Brits, Ingested, are back with their eighth studio album. We checked out their previous album (Find it here) and while I remember enjoying it, I haven’t once gone back for a listen since. But, when I heard about their new album coming out, I was pretty excited, and knew I’d have to dive into it in more depth this time. Let’s do this!
The heaviness starts immediately; the listener being punched in the face by the massive riff to open single ‘Paragon of Purity’. It’s immediately crushing, especially with Jason’s incredible screams over the top. Whether early Cannibal Corpse low or more of a higher modern scream, he pulls them both off here in the first minute to perfection, and they both fit the music incredibly well. I can’t get over the slower, stompier riff behind the chorus. Though then again, 99% of this track made my face scrunch up in the heavy face. It’s brutally heavy and the perfect way to open an album like this. It’s showcases everything the band are about and do so well. The riffs, the screams, the melodic guitar leads, all of it is *chefs kiss*. And that breakdown at the end, FILTHY.
We get little reprieve with ‘Endless Machine’. If anything it goes even harder than the previous song, the vocals giving such a heavy edge to the crushing riffs and plodding drums. We even get a great little guitar solo tucked in the middle of this, technical and fitting the track perfectly. Meanwhile, the insane heaviness of everything after the solo was incredible. It’s another awesome song and one that easily makes our playlist!
‘Where No Light Shines’ opens fittingly ominously; a high guitar melody ringing out over ambient sound. It isn’t long before the huge riffs and screams come in, but it all sounds so perfect over the top of the melody, almost like it’s a missing piece of the jigsaw. It builds and builds into utter, brutal chaos before dropping out into a filthy riff around the 1:30 minute mark. Brutal face again. The band somehow create such dynamics while still having it all be crushingly heavy, it’s amazing. And of course it has a brutal, incredible breakdown that very much melted my face. This band do heavy so very well, and I honestly cannot get enough!
Sylosis’ incredible Josh Middleton lends his talents to ‘Expect to Fail’. It’s another crushingly brutal track in the veins of the others so far, but Josh does add a fun new dynamic to the proceedings. The same can actually be said about a lot of the rest of the album. While it’s certainly all great, a lot of the tracks do sound similar and blend together a touch. Having said that, I really liked the inclusion of the clean vocals in the chorus of ‘Starve the Fire’. It added a layer of catchiness to the heaviness that I wasn’t expecting. It made it another easy highlight track of the album. Heck, Mark Hunter of Chimaira also does a great job at that in ‘In Nothingness’. As much as I love their heaviness, the contrast of the odd cleaner vocal is incredible and really makes the track memorable.
The two other tracks that stood out to me were ‘Numinous’ and the epic closing song. Both are on the slower end of the bands sound, which instantly piqued my interested. And while the former does get heavier, it still maintains a slower, groovier edge. Meanwhile, ‘A Path Once Lost’ is just clean guitar and vocals for well over two minutes. Once again it explodes in out of nowhere, punching the listener in the face with the awesome heaviness. And yet, it still has some clean vocals, almost making the track sound Karnivool-like which is awesome! It’s an excellent song and the perfect way to close this epic and heavy of an album. Oh, and it’s another easily playlisted highlight track.
Overall: I loved this! I typically don’t get into stuff this heavy for a full album, but this one held my attention throughout and constantly kept things interesting. The riffing, drums and screams were all incredible and crushingly heavy, while the odd moments of levity between them were incredible. I wasn’t too familiar with the band before now outside of that review of their previous album, and they certainly have a new fan in me! They’re going to be major players in the heavy music scene sooner rather than later!
The Score: 8.5/10