Review Summary: slime time
On the remote off-chance that you both don’t know and do care, chytridiomycosis is a weird disease that afflicts amphibians: a fungal infection of the brain and body causing a variety of zombie-like behavioural changes which generally result in the death of the host. Slimelord are the latest doomsome death metal act lubricating their already-oozing tones and arrangements with thick globules of psychedelic murk, and with their handily titled debut album
Chytridiomycosis Relinquished have certainly created a gruesome and surreal odyssey that captures that idea of some kind of wretched lifeform fighting a losing battle against invaders inside of its own mind.
Autonomic horror aside, the band name Slimelord was hopefully a good clue for those correctly suspecting that this is actually also a very fun album, one which approaches its quite silly/very cool subject matter with an appropriately flamboyant commitment to atmosphere. Appeals to the senses beyond sound feature from very start of the album - a brief sample of sinister avian honks - immediately thrusting the listener into a deranged ecosystem somewhere near the bottom of the food chain. These immersive and often subtle touches feature throughout the album as it draws the listener into its hostile environment: drips/plops, chitters and other murmurations appear in the gaps between the twisted limbs of the song structures to reiterate themes of monstrous, uncontrolled growth and brutal natural selection.
Just as the colourful alien deathswamp on the cover art might imply,
Chytridiomycosis Relinquished is a strange and unpredictable album, where lengthier doom arrangements might incubate into invasive riff swells or savage leads - the oppressive “The Hissing Moor” comes to mind - just as often as they might constrict and slump into incongruous melodic segues, such as in the disorientating “Gut-Brain Axis”. Varied vocal techniques and instrumental tones reinforce a sense of raw wilderness, frenzied competition and expedited evolution - see how the freaky leads dissolve into an unlikely bass break in “Tidal Slaughtermarsh”, or the shredding that erupts about halfway through “The Beckoning Bell”. Frequent tempo shifts and foreground refocusing - like the creative, subsiding grooves early in “Splayed Mudscape” - provide plenty of dynamism and give the impression of muscles pulling against each other or cells self-destructing in a grotesque internal struggle.
For all its eccentricity,
Chytridiomycosis Relinquished is a very self-assured album that does not overcomplicate or overcompensate, taking its time with thematic development and tasteful exposition to achieve a coherent narrative which is equal parts whimsical and horrifying. Examples of the band’s confidence can be seen in the structurally simplistic “Batrachomorpha Resurrections Chamber” which features enough variation in timbre to mesmerise, or the triumphant lead-laden closer “Heroic Demise”, wherein our web-toed protagonist discovers exactly how to relinquish chytridiomycosis (spoiler: it’s death). Slimelord’s debut is an entertainingly disgusting one and is easily the greatest death metal album about fungal-borne frog brain infections of all time.
