Review by Sandre the Giant
I don’t spend enough of my time listening to new EPs from bands I have come to realise, and sometimes it proves to be my undoing when it comes to newer bands particularly. Such as Philadephia’s Cavern Womb, whose 2021 debut split appearance ‘Communion of Corrupted Minds’ passed me by completely until earlier this week. After that, I discovered that purely by chance, they have a new debut EP coming on the 24th of May through Rotted Life Records, so I thought I would jump in feet first again!
‘Stages of Infinity’ looks to build on that uncomfortable, psychedelic brutality that their tracks on the split created. It is guttural, creepy and twsits and writhes like a bad, bad trip. Opener ‘Exultation of Depraved Majesty’ is brutal but in a way that is difficult to describe. All the elements of death metal are in place, but it is like you are looking at them through a strange filter. Everything feels odd, uncomfortable, oppressive. The disharmonic clean tones of ‘Amber Scourge’ are the same, bleeding into something frantic and maddening that sets them apart immediately. Like Ulcerate if they were more like Autopsy or, during the gloriously epic ‘Cryopreseved’, like Gorguts got a hold of some Atheist records and then wrote some epic post rock/prog metal passages. It is really difficult to describe but an exhilirating joy to behold. Everything the band do brings their own unique touch to proceedings.
Closer ‘A Vessel for the Esoteric’ is pure ugly cavernous death metal through and through, slowly building into a death/doom crescendo tha provides that final little piece of Cavern Womb’s puzzle. This is a band that are really capable of putting together an approach to heaviness that you’ve not come across before. A myriad of influences pour into the cauldron of carnage, and out comes ‘Stages of Infinity’, an EP that is startling in execution and quality. I’m going to be keeping a much closer eye on these guys in future.
https://www.facebook.com/rottedlife
https://cavernwomb.bandcamp.com/
https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/communion-of-corrupted-minds