Review Summary: You know the feeling...
When the snare goes "PING!" your brain goes "HMPH!", yes? Right, right, I know that you know, otherwise you wouldn't have clicked on this review. Well, you've come to the right place, because this is one of those records... Of the death metal kind, I mean, you know the ones I'm talking about
: Demilich, Gorguts, Cryptopsy, Suffocation... all that shuffle. The fun fact here, apart from the song titles which are a thing entirely of their own, is that every bent and squalling guitar wail, snare clonk, and undecipherable regurgitation is product of a single mind and body structure, that of New Jersey based Mr. Evan Daniele. Being the former drummer of Sentient Horror might explain why one of the most prominent elements of this recording, his third as Dead and Dripping, is his organically fluent and dynamic drumming, as opposed to having the machine do the dirty work and getting this perfect but flat cadence, which to me is insufferable.
To add to his talents, the man is no strange to strings either, and
Blackened Cerebral Rifts (yes, it's "rifts", not "riffs", but it could have been!) delivers a whole array of flesh-roasting, neck-twisting, life-altering riffage with extreme proficiency. Now, I will admit this level of technicality in my death metal would normally make me tap out, as my aging and limping neurons can't run fast enough to deliver the data to my brain anymore (useless thawing slugs!), so usually, technical or brutal death sounds to me like a stereo chewing on a tape (if you were old enough, you'd know what that sounds like, it's terrifying.)
Suffices to say then that, against all odds, I really enjoyed this record. The cover art does sell it pretty well and the fact that it is released through Transcending Obscurity gives it a fair amount of credibility.
Blackened Cerebral Rifts spews off the load from the very first second but, if you're like me, it does gamble with your patience. Stretching an album of this disgusting and punishing nature to almost 45 minutes proves two things: That the author is an optimistic madman, and that they're also a very confident madman. For some un***able reason, the runtime just works here, and the album flies by like a poison cloud out of an undead sorcerer's mouth. Every song is stuffed generously, and there are in fact quite a few thrills to be had: for example that cosmic solo at the end of "Tragic Ascent of Absurdity's Pale Moon" (god I wish there were more of those here), the whole of "Kaleidoscopic Visions of Porous Obsidian Eternities", seriously what a hammer to the skull, or the bass dissertations in "Meticulously Unraveling the Serpentine Consciousness". Also having that little interlude titled "Hopeless Desire For Reprieve" before unleashing the second half is quite the palette cleansing. Daniele is a man of taste. Well thought.
The only track that I feel it could have been shaved is "Infinitely Plummeting Into Violet Portals of Delusion", which indulges itself with slower tempos and repetitions of the same structure maybe for a bit too long. Also, and this is just a matter of personal taste, I found Daniele's gurgling, especially that really weak and dry register a bit distracting at times but on the other hand it adds to the nightmarish feel of the record. I would normally talk about atmosphere but
Blackened Cerebral Rifts is as pleasant as having a conversation in a dead language with the bicephalous spawn on the cover. Speaking of covers, I don't know what's going on this year with purple but Voidceremony, Tentacult, and now Dead and Dripping also joins the purple death family. Can't blame them though, I mean, look at it! By the way, the art is courtesy of Jason Wayne Barnett, whom you may know as the man behind the Power Trip logo, among other very cool design things.
Through Transcending Obscurity, who seem to be on a roll with quality releases these last couple of years, Dead and Dripping delivers an excellent technical and brutal death metal release that may be the delight of even those not so accustomed to this level of sheer aggression. As refreshing as a bath in the toxic ooze of a forsaken Saturnian moon's ocean. Highly recommended.
