Review by Sandre the Giant
The first thing you’ll see of the new Swelling Repulsion record is that beautifully dissonant album art. Sweeping mountain ranges of chaotic realms with a hauntingly void like blackness in the middle, you can sense the type of ‘out of space, out of time’ sound that ‘Fatally Misguided’ is about to bring you. It kinda reminds me of that Scale the Summit record from 2009, except done by Salvador Dali. This artistic style has graced all of their previous work so far, and it really is eye catching. Anyway, it is out now through Transcending Obscurity.
The thing about Swelling Repulsion’s sound that you’ll notice immediately is the chunky rawness of it. This is no sleek tech death record, this is a frantic and maddening spiral of death metal that takes as much from Botch as it does Morbid Angel. There’s a lot of Azagthothian riffs here, particularly the chaotic ‘Basking in Fumes of Failure’, but there’s a little bit of a hardcore bent here as well, leaving a colder and rougher sound that really makes Swelling Repulsion feel different. That sound was a little more evident on their debut full length, ‘The Severed Path’, but it still lurks here beneath the surface There are times, like in ‘Sacred Doom’ or ‘Failure’, where it feels almost like you’re about to get a hook, but then that is yanked away leaving you alone and oppressed under a dense, technical wizardry. ‘Cesspool of Dismembered Memory’ gradually drags you down and under its swampy surface (nice Simpsons sample btw), while closer ‘Sullen Light of Expired Stars’ is the triumphant culmination of this invigorating and mesmersing album’s chameleonic style.
It’s very progressive without feeling indulgent, dissonant without feeling too sickening, oddly melodic without being catchy. ‘Fatally Misguided’ isn’t an easy album; its songs will gradually reveal their splendour to you over time but what a splendour it is. Uncomfortable yet enthralling, Swelling Repulsion have really evolved their debut sound into something newer, denser and more labyrinthian than ever.
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https://swellingrepulsion.bandcamp.com/
https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/
The Killchain 