Review Summary: truly a loss.
Four years after unleashing
Garten der Unbewusstheit onto unsuspecting fans, Corrupted have emerged again from hibernation with a new EP and a new line-up. Without going into much detail one can safely assume this incarnation of the band is a brand new
thing, having lost its signature voice as well as its primary song-writer. Those acquainted with Corrupted's past EP material will know, particularly in regard to their earlier recordings, that Corrupted's style of sludge doom on their EPs is equally as engaging as that of their mammoth constructions on the LPs. 90s releases like
El dios queja,
Dios injusto, later ones such as
Vasana and
An Island Insane, not to mention the material on countless splits, showcases both short and long tracks of heavy doom with varying degrees of atmosphere and intensity. Considering the quality of their entire discography, major and minor releases included, listening to
Loss and thinking what it represents for the new version of Corrupted is somewhat disheartening, but at the same time makes you treasure the earlier works just that little more.
Loss is a fairly basic recording. Perhaps the point behind it was to just give a snippet of what the band could sound like, what they could
possibly achieve, given the time and chance, but taking into account the heritage of fantastic minor releases Corrupted has had for over two decades, the new EP falls absolutely flat on its face. Starting with eerie wind noises and some harsh shrieks, the EP gets into gear with a swirling blown out riff that rises out of the nothingness. Accompanied with buried drums and a menacing atmosphere, the new vocalist does a decent Hevi impersonation as the track continues to build. The new vocalist Taiki, who being a female may serve as a drawcard for the 'new' Corrupted, adds a bit of flair later in the track with some higher pitched vocals when the riff changes for the first (and only) time. Then the music and vocals fade out and we're left with some dingy ambient sounds for the remaining 5 minutes.
There really isn't a better word to describe
Loss other than 'disappointing'. It's disappointing that rather than calling it quits the remnants of the band have continued on with the Corrupted moniker. It's disappointing that this relatively difficult to acquire 7" has barely 3 minutes of 'sludge' material on it, which though sounding somewhat decent, is a far cry from absolutely anything the band has released before, or other similar bands are releasing now and have done in the more recent past. Most of all it's disappointing that such poor quality material is being stamped with the Corrupted label and thus being collectively grouped with earlier material. I sincerely hope that this is just some poorly thought-out experiment that will be rectified in future material, or even that a name change could let Corrupted R.I.P., but my fingers aren't crossed.
