Review Summary: Rising from the ashes of a decimated legacy
Brutal death metal and its various affiliated sub-genres tend to be looked down upon, and for good reason. A few years ago, I would have certainly done the same with Ingested. The first instalment in their catalogue,
Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering, was a seriously bland (at times offensively so) record that offered almost nothing from one of the most homogeneous, over-saturated scenes in extreme metal. But 2013's EP
Revered By No One, Feared By All was a definite step up, packing a strong groove to drown out some of the less tolerable vocal moments. Unfortunately, the Manchester five piece have a lot of competition even in their local scenes, and this new album may be the deciding factor when it comes to their relevance as one of the most instantly recognisable bands in their pantheon of obscene extremity.
Of course, after releasing albums as uninteresting as
Surpassing... and 2011's
The Surreption, the band didn't have an awful great deal to live up to. But on
The Architect of Extinction the qualms that ravaged those records are scarcely found. Of course, this isn't anything new, and essentially serves to be as ridiculously intense sounding as it can from start to finish. And it pretty much succeeds. The drums aren't nearly as horrible as they once were, but still manage to be the loudest thing in the mix, doing what a rhythmic section should never do and almost completely drowning out the (much less interesting) guitars in some places. Just like on
Revered..., the band seem to relish their pummelling drums almost a bit too much, relying on them, Infant Annihilator style, to make you double take at their technical prowess.
Aside from the drums, the vocals are the thing you'll first notice here. They're much better than previous outings, ousting pig squeals for a throatier, more guttural roar and the odd demented shriek. 'The Heirs to Mankind's Atrocities' is the vocal highlight thanks to a smorgasbord of guest vocalists lending their varying gurgles and bellows to the breakdown-laden track. But while doings like this keep the band firmly rooted in the Whitechapel/Suicide Silence camp, there are hints of progression in instrumental track 'Penance' that display the same tendencies towards melody as The Kennedy Veil or other more forward thinking deathcore acts.
Vocal diversity and better production give Ingested a definite advantage of their peers, while their grasp of melody and even hooks on 'I, Despoiler' could bring them into the same high-tier deathgrind leagues as Aborted or Benighted. The guitar playing here as brilliantly flexible as ever, wrapping around tight basslines and spewing thick slabs of musical cement, hardening with every subsequent slam. Lyrically this album is as terrible as all their work, and the typical cheesy sample finds its way into a couple of tracks, but this is clearly the sound of a band fighting conventions and doing so without going overboard on technicality.
