Review Summary: righteous decomposition
Mankind deserves extinction. Any argument on the contrary is utterly indefensible. A species characterised by a unique and meticulous disdain for the earth and all its inhabitants, as well as an imagination wild with the vivid conceit necessary to collectively absolve itself of such criminality, humanity is entitled only to the sole possible justice that remains: total extermination.
Millennia of dedicated hubris have lulled man into a presumption of security, an arrogant confidence that any others on the food chain with the remotest capacity to threaten this self-appointed supremacy have long been viciously hunted into eradication or mutilated and raped into subjugation. Vertebrates and invertebrates equally, none remain that can contend with man. The so-called kingdom of Animalia is cursed: bound irrevocably to man, it will find demise either by or with him. What other lifeforms could compete?
Sanguine mycologists Blood Spore believe they know, and the death/doom trio from Philadelphia have appeared from nowhere uncannily like their namesake to wage fungal warfare upon all life. In this release, three songs totalling less than twenty three minutes altogether, the band propagate lurching song decompositions which depict the brutal transience of existence; the desperate, abrupt flare of life and strained, relieved decay of death.
The cryptic life of fungi lends itself with startling efficacy when it comes to writing doom infected death metal. Lumbering, fleshy riffs contort into monstrous swells of intoxicating leads or spongy grooves, abetted by acerbic vocals which creep and caress with tendril-like invasiveness, seething with righteous hatred for all living things. The rot accelerates in winding leads which glisten with antipathy, such as the ones that open ‘Sede to the Saprophyte’, sagging and swelling into an irrepressible constricting churn of crushing riffs.
Inexperience does not particularly hinder the band, who aren’t afraid of approaching their song-writing with appropriate patience and simplicity. This is demonstrated in decelerated controlled sections of sprawling leads and sinuous drums throughout the release. Severe attention deficiency will be one of the numerous self-imposed afflictions that facilitates the ultimate downfall of mankind, and Blood Spore capitalise on this by subjecting their listeners to prolonged strangulation through these raw, primitive sections; including roughly midway through 'Apex Colony' where the listener is duly incapacitated before a graphic bloom of virulent violence breaks them down to their very last compound in detritivorous frenzy.
Devastating as it is, Fungal Warfare Upon All Life is just the beginning. Some evolutionists theorise that fungus had a key role in the development of all other life. Any truth in that fact indicates that Blood Spore have the blessed potential to accomplish the opposite. While man’s domination may well be evidence against the existence of justice in the sickeningly massive universe, any shred of it will see this band succeed.
