Hailing from Poughkeepsie, New York, this one-man band (with session bassist and drummer) comes completely out of nowhere to surprise and delight seasoned ears. It's an experimental, often nightmarish form of cavernous death metal, all twisted, abstract riffs and deep growls, yet from the start mainman James Oskarbski keeps you guessing with song structures that are biased towards lengthy repetitious and hypnotic riffing. Opener Long Stretch of Bleeding Light dances between atmospheric and dissonant riffs that often dip over into thrash territory without lessening the music's essential heaviness, outright galloping at points. The vocal grunts and growls are almost unrelated to the instruments, echoing atop lead guitar workouts that seem to curve back on themselves as the piece pounds through its near-seven minute running time.

A fine opener, and things improve from there. The eleven-minute plus Hissing Pyre constantly paces the listener like a panther, keeping a fast yet still restrained tempo and using those repeated trilling riffs to draw you in to the point of psychedelia. As it progresses it dips a little more into thrash and even groove terrain, some of the strange lead melodies like some rejected Meshuggah solos, breaking down then reforming around the nine minute mark and chugging out enjoyably with what sounds like demented keyboards - perhaps a little long-winded but still highly effective. There's not a bad track present, including the quasi-interlude Illuminations with its nightmarish choirs that soon turns more ominous thanks to threatening backing guitar lines and snarled vocals.

It's a relatively short album and you can see why as the same tricks start to feel repeated by the end. Despite that, Gnawing the Fabric of Time comes across perhaps the best, somewhere between Mithras and Pestilence initially before settling into lightspeed riff trills as before, still effective despite being the penultimate track. And finale Unbending Follicle, Unending Blight takes steps into ambient territory with the riffing becoming overwhelming - a solid end to an invigorating and unique album. Perhaps not to every taste and sure to annoy some but worth hearing for those who yearn for oddness itself.