INGESTED slam down the UK death metal gauntlet.
Where Only Gods May Tread UNIQUE LEADER
The UK slam gods are back and ready to conquer
IT REALLY IS about time that Ingested were properly recognised as the most important UK death metal band of their generation. Two years ago, the Manchester slam specialists released their fourth album, The Level Above Human. An imperious affair, it was unremittingly monstrous and brutal, but full of incisive hooks and undeniable grooves, setting a new benchmark for this increasingly popular point on the extreme metal spectrum. Every bit as crushing and memorable as its predecessor, Where Only Gods May Tread should prove to be, in a sane world, the four-piece’s breakthrough moment.
In truth, there’s no obvious reason why the Brits’ fifth album won’t propel the band toward a much bigger audience. Building on all that momentum and evolving shrewdly but subtly beyond the sound they nailed so magnificently last time around, they’ve delivered yet another masterpiece of ultra-modern savagery here. Preview singles Impending Dominance and Dead Seraphic Forms
made it plain that Ingested haven’t compromised their intensity, they’ve just grown exponentially as songwriters. The rest of the album confirms it; from the wild-eyed berserker raid of No Half Measures and Black Pill’s
mid-paced murderousness to The Burden Of Our Failures’ ghostly sludge and the pitch-black sprawl of nine-minute closer
Leap Of The Faithless, they have never sounded sharper, nastier or more commanding.
Other UK bands may get the plaudits, but diehard death metalheads know who the daddies are. Where Only Gods May Tread raises the brutality bar once again. Gods is about right.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Decapitated, Devourment, Thy Art Is Murder
DOM LAWSON