Ingested
The Architect of Extinction
(Siege of Amida Records)
Brutal death is a tough genre to excel in because you’re combining a bunch of fast subgenres: tech death, deathcore, and slam, so usually things like melody are thrown out the window. This is meant to be fast, aggressive, and part of the goal is to be a tad painful on the ears. In that regard, Ingested’s lastest record, The Architect of Extinction, succeeds on all metrics. The band’s sound is definitely tighter, more aggressive than ever, with an added fun element that was missing from its previous outings. These songs sound like they would be a joy to hear in the live setting. “The Divine Right of Kings” is easily the best song the band has written.
Despite the advances in its sound, Ingested still hasn’t addressed two nagging problems. First, too many of the riffs feel like Aborted or Whitechapel knock-offs. If you’re going to look up to a great band, you could do worse than these giants. However, imitation isn’t the best form of flattery when it comes to music. Second, Ingested takes the brutal too seriously. Sure, that’s sort of the point here, but the British band comes across too indebted to deathcore for its own good. Moments lose some of their impact when a portion of the song seems to drag on and on. Ingested is pretty damn good with its death and slam sections, but the breakdowns are sorely lacking.
The real problem with Ingested’s brand of deathcore-tinged brutal death is that this all was done better by another British band last year: Acrania. Interestingly enough, that band went all-in on the deathcore idea, but the resulting music was so damn insane that it was difficult not to enjoy the crazy ride. For Ingested, the problem is that you get the feeling that the band is just treadding on the insanity-ridden path that others have done. You don’t get the sense that it’s breaking the mold. Death metal isn’t always supposed to break the mold, but when it is lacking in other areas (too many breakdowns and unoriginal riffs), then you need something to break away from the masses. Unfortunately, Ingested hasn’t done that quite yet.
(Nicholas Senior)
Purchase The Architect of Extinction here.
